CT scan radiation can cause cancer

Two US studies published in the Archives of Internal Medicine have found that radiation from computed tomographic (CT) scanners can cause cancer decades after patient exposure.

CT scans use blasts of X-rays in a test that allows doctors to see a three-dimensional image of a targeted organ or tissue.

The first study, undertaken in four San Francisco hospitals, found that "even the median doses (of radiation) are four times higher than they are supposed to be, according to the currently quoted radiation dose for these tests."

Just one CT coronary angiogram on average submits the patient to the equivalent of 309 chest X-rays.

This study found that one 40-year-old woman out of 270 who underwent a CT scan of coronary arteries would develop cancer as a result of the test.

A second test meanwhile found that the 72 million CT scan images done in the United States in 2007 would cause 29,000 supplementary cancers. The data excludes patients who already had a tumour or had the scan as part of end of life treatment.

Cancers caused by the radiation appear 20-30 years after the procedure, it found. "At a 50-per cent mortality rate (the scans) will cause approximately 15,000 deaths annually," the research said.

"The effort to avoid unnecessary excess cancers must be multifaceted," the study noted suggesting that "radiation protocols should be improved to eliminate the 13-fold difference in radiation dose for the same CT scan," the studies in the December 14 issue of the AIM said.

"There is far more radiation from medical CT scans than has been recognised previously, in amounts projected to cause tens of thousands of excess cancers annually," they warned.

Singapore's relationship with China is changing over time: MM Lee

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew on Tuesday said China may become an advanced world power in 50 years' time, but it does not mean that Singapore will be squeezed out.

Mr Lee was speaking at a dialogue organised as part of celebrations to mark the second anniversary of Business China - an organisation spearheaded by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry to strengthen cultural and economic ties with the Asian powerhouse.

He said Singapore's relationship with China is changing over time, and will continue to change, and faced with a more confident China, Singapore can find its role in other ways.

Mr Lee said that for Singapore to be an effective player on the world stage, it must retain its point of view, and not become a satellite of other bigger economies like the US, Japan or China.

Mr Lee said: "We are a little red dot but we are a special red dot. We are connected with the world, we play a special role. And we are not going to be in anybody's pocket.

"And if we lose that status, we are meaningless. Because of our status as independent actors, independent observers of situation, when we say something, they say yes that is a Singapore point of view and very often a realistic point of view."

Some participants asked how Singapore can continue to retain its competitive edge in China.

Replying in Mandarin, Mr Lee said the country can build on its familiarity with Southeast Asia and the West.

Mr Lee said: "What will you bring them? It is not just about language or your bilingualism. That is a small issue. The main point is what speciality do you have that he does not, that he wants to learn? Only then will they want to interact with you

Fatal accident along NS Highway.

The fatal accident involving a double-decker express bus along the North South Highway recently that killed 10 innocent passengers should not have happened if the govt have acted strictly.How could a sleepy bus driver be allowed to drive and put the lives of passengers at risks?The Ministry of Transport have to act fast and allow the full force of the laws to be applied on those errant bus drivers and their bus operators.We do not want to see a repeat of such accidents on our roads anymore.The authorities concerned especially Road Transport Department must act without fear and favour on those manning the long distance express buses so that every passenger sitting and travelling on them will feel safe as they know they are in good hands.

Nazri against single stream school system

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz says he is against the proposal for single stream school system as "we cannot force other (non-Malay) races to sacrifice their characteristics and become Malays (Malaynised)".

What is more, he said, the 1Malaysia concept allows the non-Malays to use and preserve their languages.

"What we want is a united people and country, not forcing all races to become Malays (Malaynised).

"Chinese and Tamil primary schools can continue to to exist, as long as these schools teach Bahasa Malaysia as it is the national language with which (Malaysians of) various races communicate and interact with one another to promote unity."

Nazri, who is currently overseas, told Sin Chew Daily that Chinese and Tamil schools are not meant for only the Chinese and Indians respectively, the Malays can also enter these schools.

Malay parents should encourage their children to study in Chinese schools to learn an additional language, he said.

"To acquire another language, be it Chinese, Tamil, Arabic, Japanese etc is to gain an advantage.

"I am now in Chengdu, China, and because I don't speak Mandarin I feel I am at a disadvantage.

"We should regard language as a subject and there are benefits to gain from learning additional languages. Education should not be racialised."

On writer/poet Eddin Khoo's remark that he missed the chance to learn Chinese because his father, historian Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Khoo Kay Kim who raised the ire of many with his single stream school remark recently, was too patriotic, Nazri said such thinking be discarded.

Nazri said the government cannot compel all the races to learn only Bahasa Malaysia, forcing the non-Malays to give up their own languages.

"Malaysia is a multi-ethnic country where the various races enjoy the right to learn their own languages. Multi-culture and multi-lingual are the strong points of Malaysia, something which cannot be denied," he added.

Bilingual policy re-affirmed

EDUCATION Minister Ng Eng Hen on Tuesday spent much time re-affirming Singapore's bilingual policy, especially the teaching of the Chinese language, the subject of much discussion in recent months.

The policy remains relevant for economic and cultural reasons, as bilingual skills will benefit the children given the rise of Asia, he said.

But it has to be re-calibrated to cope with what he called an 'inexorable change' in the language environment in homes, with six in 10 Primary 1 Chinese students speaking English at home now, he noted.

Six in 10 Indian pupils and 3.5 in 10 Malay pupils are also using English predominantly with family members.

He made it clear that those who can excel in the Chinese language will have the opportunity to do so. If more students want this, he would even add a new Special Assistance Plan (SAP) school to the present 25 which teach the language at a higher level.

But accepting change also means that for the rest of the students, expectations, teaching methods and even tests have to be re-calibrated to keep the language alive and useful.

S'pore can't be a satellite

SINGAPORE has built up an unspoken understanding with China that will serve it well in future relations with the emerging giant, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said on Tuesday night.

But it must never descend to becoming a satellite of Beijing or any other power, he stressed to some 200 officials and businessmen who have dealings with China.

Singapore must keep its 'own point of view', or it will lose all effectiveness in the new world order, he said in a wide-ranging dialogue, part of a dinner to mark networking group Business China's second anniversary.

Mr Lee is patron of the non-profit organisation, which helps Singaporeans - especially businessmen - learn more about China. It was set up by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The 50-minute dialogue, which spanned the highs and lows of nearly 20 years of bilateral ties, was chaired by Mr Robin Hu, Singapore Press Holdings' senior executive vice-president of Chinese newspapers and newspaper services.

60,000 people pack Orchard Road for Christmas party

Over 60,000 people packed Orchard Road Friday evening for an annual Christmas street party called "Celebrate Christmas in Singapore".

And even a late afternoon downpour did not dampen the revellers' spirits.

From 1pm on Friday till 1am on Saturday, Orchard Road was turned into a pedestrian-only street, where human traffic took over motor traffic.

Organisers expect more than 60,000 people to visit the street celebration.

Lighted floats dotted the main street, drawing trigger-happy crowds. And just outside Ion Orchard, a group of line-dancers showed off some nifty moves, while others quickly got into the spirit of things.

This is the sixth year that the street celebration is being held, and it is supported by the National Council of Churches.

For Christians, December 25 marks the birth of Christ. But Christmas also became a festive holiday, embraced by many, for other reasons. After all, this is the season of giving.

And so, it was perhaps not surprising that the biggest mass celebration on Friday night was held in the shopping heart of Singapore.

Down memory lane.

On the 24th December my family and I stayed in Zen Zeng Hotel in JB.We checked in before noon.After taking bath and packed our things we took two taxis to the ICQ complex.We got to walk quite a distance to have our passports stamped.Frankly I feel that it is a waste of public funds to build such a big complex.I understand that the majority of the public feel the same.Then the immigration officer manning the counter on the Singapore side was young and unfriendly.He even stared at me as if I were a criminal.Lucky for him I didn't remember his name or else I would have complained to the Singapore Tourism Board..We took the MRT from Kranji station to Ang Moh Kio where we took our lunch.After our walk there we took a bus to Bukit Timah where I frequently went when my uncle was still around.I could not recognize the old place anymore as more housing estates and shops have surfaced.From Bukit Timah we took another bus to Orchard Road to join with the Christmas crowd.It was filled with crowds of peoples.After enjoying the Christmas spirits and the colourful lights we left Orchard Rd for JB at 8pm.We finally reached JB at about 10 pm.

No copying

SOME primary schools are starting early when it comes to teaching their pupils about plagiarism.

At Rulang Primary School in Jurong West, even Primary 1 pupils learn about citation. 'They learn to ask who's the author, who's the narrator, when they read something,' said principal Cheryl Lim.

Such lessons on the gravity of plagiarism gradually increase over the years. By Primary 6, all pupils know how to write a bibliography, which must be appended to everything they submit, she added.

North Vista Primary principal Phua Kia Wang ramped up cyber-wellness education at his school in Sengkang when he realised some pupils were unfamiliar with the concept of intellectual property.

'When told to do research, their first instinct was to copy whole paragraphs from their textbooks or the Internet,' he recalled.'The first thing we teach them is to understand and respect the rights of the author, and how to give credit.'

With children now turning to the Web for help with school projects, plagiarism - once an issue associated with higher education institutions - may soon become a problem at the primary level.

Sea rose 8m in warmer age

SEA levels were likely 8m higher around 125,000 years ago when polar temperatures were 3-5 deg C warmer, says a new study published on Wednesday to show the effects of global warming.

The research by the US universities of Harvard and Princeton was released in the journal Nature as the world's nations met in Denmark to forge a strategy to head off harmful effects of global warming blamed on greenhouse gases.

To understand the potential effects of a rise in temperature, the researchers reexamined data about the last interglacial stage - a warmer period within an ice age - which climaxed about 125,000 years ago, they said.

At the time, polar temperatures were 3-5 deg C higher than today, providing a comparison for current scenarios of future rises of 1-2 deg C, they said.

'We find a 95 per cent probability that global sea level peaked at least 6.6m higher than today during the last interglacial,' the study said.

'It is likely (67 per cent probability) to have exceeded 8.0m but is unlikely (33 per cent probability) to have exceeded 9.4m,' it said.

S.Arabia most restrictive

US ALLIES Saudi Arabia and Egypt are among 10 mostly Muslim nations whose governments impose the most curbs on religion, according to a report on Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Afghanistan's government also ranked poorly, highlighting a potentially sensitive diplomatic flashpoint as President Barack Obama sends more US troops to the Central Asian country to quell a growing insurgency. The Pew report says nearly 70 per cent of the world's 6.8 billion people who live in countries that have severe restrictions on religion.

The report ranked countries by two measures: government restrictions on religion and restrictions from violence or intimidation by private individuals or groups. Saudi Arabia was the only country to rank 'very high' in both measures.

The first index ranked 10 mostly Muslim countries as 'very high'. No. 1 oil exporter and US Middle East ally Saudi Arabia was ranked the most restrictive, followed by US adversary Iran. Pew noted both impose limits on minority faiths and 'enforce strict interpretations of Islamic law.'

Egypt was also in the 'very high' list and several of the countries, including Saudi Arabia, are routinely cited in the US State Department's annual International Religious Freedom Report under 'restrictions, abuses and concerns.' China was cited for restrictions on Buddhism in Tibet and on Uighur Muslims, its ban on the Falun Gong movement and its pressure on religious groups not registered by the government.

By region, the Middle East and North Africa were the most restrictive, while the Americas were the least.

Cancer risks from CT scans

RADIATION from CT scans done in 2007 will cause 29,000 cancers and kill nearly 15,000 Americans, researchers said on Monday.

The findings, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, add to mounting evidence that Americans are overexposed to radiation from diagnostic tests, especially from a specialised kind of X-ray called a computed tomography, or CT, scan.

'What we learned is there is a significant amount of radiation with these CT scans, more than what we thought, and there is a significant number of cancers,' said Dr Rita Redberg, editor of the Archives of Internal Medicine, where the studies were published.

'It's estimated that just from the CT scans done in one year, just in 2007, there will be 15,000 excess deaths,' she said in a telephone interview. 'We're doing millions of CT scans every year and the numbers are increasing. That is a lot of excess deaths.'

CT scans give doctors a view inside the body, often eliminating the need for exploratory surgery. But CT scans involve much higher radiation dose than conventional X-rays. A chest CT scan exposes the patient to more than 100 times the radiation dose of a chest X-ray. About 70 million CT scans were done on Americans in 2007, up from 3 million in 1980. Amy Berrington de Gonzalez of the National Cancer Institute and colleagues developed a computer model to estimate the impact of so many scans.

They estimated the scans done in 2007 will cause 29,000 cancers. A third of the projected cancers will occur in people who were ages 35 to 54 when they got their CT, two-thirds will occur in women and 15 per cent will arise from scans done in children or teens. The researchers estimated there will be an extra 2,000 excess breast cancers just from CT scans done in 2007

Master's degree at 17

A HIGH school diploma at 15 and a bachelor's degree at 16: precocious teenager Marian Kogler has now become Austria's youngest master's graduate at the age of 17.

Vienna's University of Technology (TU) announced on Monday that the young man had completed his master's degree in computational intelligence.

He also holds a bachelor's degree in software and information engineering, and has now embarked on a doctorate in computer science at the TU.

The son of a writer and an administrative assistant, Kogler could read and write at the age of three.

Part of his master's research has been presented at international conferences and published in scientific journals, according to his professor Rudolf Freund.

Giant iceberg breaking up

A MASSIVE iceberg edging slowly toward Australia's southwestern coast is breaking up into hundreds of smaller icebergs as it drifts into warmer waters, creating potentially hazardous conditions for ships trying to navigate the region, a scientist said on Tuesday.

The iceberg, known as B17B, was spotted last week on satellite imaging about 1,700 kilometres off Western Australia state, prompting Australia's Bureau of Meteorology to issue a shipping alert.

Since then, it has shrunk from 140 square kilometres to 115 square kilometres, or around 18 kilometres long and 8 kilometres wide, said glaciologist Neal Young of the Australian Antarctic Division.

The iceberg has broken up into hundreds of smaller icebergs, some up to several kilometres wide, and spread over more than 1,000 kilometres of ocean, he said. 'I expect it to dissipate,' Mr Young said. But exactly when, he added, is anyone's guess.

The iceberg is one of several that split off in Antarctica in 2000 when parts of two major ice shelves - the Ross Sea Ice Shelf and Ronne Ice Shelf - fractured.

New Zealand issued a shipping alert last month after authorities spotted a flotilla of icebergs heading toward South Island. Those icebergs have since moved east, away from New Zealand.

Teach subjects in English

FORMER premier Mahathir Mohamad warned on Monday that Malaysia risked being left behind technologically if it abandoned the teaching of mathematics and science in the English language.

The veteran leader introduced the policy of teaching maths and science in English six years ago, following criticisms that the standard of English among Malaysians had deteriorated. But this was dropped by the Najib administration in July.

'English is the language of the Knowledge Age. Countries which do not master English will not only be left behind but risk being colonised either directly or indirectly,' he said.

Poor knowledge led countries to be oppressed and even invaded, he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the Education Minister, said in July that the teaching of maths and science in English in national schools will be dropped from 2012.

The subjects will be taught again in Bahasa Malaysia, but the government will strengthen the teaching of English language at all levels of schooling.

KL to impose GST

A BILL to introduce the goods and services tax (GST) will be tabled in the Malaysian Parliament by the year-end, as the government signals that it will push ahead with this politically sensitive revenue-raising option.

Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Tuesday the Cabinet had agreed to the tabling of the Bill for the first reading, to enable the government to gather feedback.

Under the Malaysian system, a Bill is tabled for two readings before it is debated and voted upon by the Lower House. It then moves to the Senate for a vote.

Mr Najib, who was in New York to meet investors, was quoted by the Bernama news agency as saying that the government will introduce GST 'very gently' if it decided to do so. 'It's not going to be an abrupt introduction,' he said, pledging that it would not burden the poor or middle class, or lead to rampant inflation.

The proposed GST would replace the sales and services tax now imposed on companies with an annual turnover ranging from RM150,000 (S$61,500) to RM500,000.

This is the second time that the government is attempting to introduce the GST. It had announced in Budget 2005 that the new tax would be implemented in 2007, but backed down after a public outcry.

Banking job not so hot

BEFORE the global financial crisis, banking was, without qualification, a highly sought-after career. In the post-crisis world, however, markedly fewer fresh graduates rate it as a top career choice.

A new survey released yesterday by JobsFactory, a campus recruitment specialist, found that banking and financial services remain the most popular industry among fresh graduates.

However, the percentage of graduates who rated it as their first choice has shrunk by 10.8 per cent compared to last year. The financial sector has suffered a blow to its image as a result of the recent global financial crisis - blamed largely on the lack of regulation in the finance industry.

JobsFactory's annual survey, which polled 3,010 respondents from September to last month, showed a significant drop in the rankings of financial institutions, with only four banks in the top 10 - DBS Bank, which leads the pack at No.6, Citigroup, Barclays Capital Global Services and Deutsche Bank.

Last year, six banks were within the top 10, and three were among the top five employers. All financial institutions have fallen out of the top five positions this year, and Barclays is the only bank which has risen in the rankings from 11th to 9th position, said JobsFactory.

JobsFactory director Lim Der Shing noted that most banks have not hired aggressively in the past year, and have retrenched staff to cut costs. 'The effects of the economic crisis have most probably diminished the appeal of the financial industry considerably,' he said.

10% growth possible in Q4 ,CHINA.

CHINA'S economy could grow by over 10 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 spurred by massive investment and rising consumption, the state press said on Sunday, citing a top government think tank.

'The economy is benefitting from fast-paced investment, record levels of consumption, rising exports to international markets and the stable resumption of industrial growth,' China News Service cited Yu Bin, a top economist at the cabinet's State Council Developmental Research Centre, as saying.

Mr Yu told a symposium that China's economy would witness growth of more than 10 percent year-on-year in the last three months of 2009, with full year growth of around 8.5 per cent, the report said.

China could also maintain double-digit growth next year, Mr Yu said, but the economy faced several challenges, including inflation linked to a vigorous government stimulus package and the appreciation of the yuan.

'If the Chinese yuan appreciates too fast, the huge numbers of export industries will suffer,' Mr Yu said. 'But a small appreciation will attract more capital inflows and speculation over the yuan could bring instability to financial markets. China is facing these two difficulties.'

The government must also adequately stablise real estate markets that were responsible for a significant portion of the nation's growth this year and which have gobbled up nearly one fourth of investment in 2009, he said, adding that in the coming year, the government should continue to pump-prime the economy to ensure that consumption and investment did not sharply fall off.

English to teach Chinese

USING English to teach Chinese has proven to be effective for children from predominantly English-speaking homes.

So, teachers should not be hung up on whether it is taboo to use a mix of English and Chinese for these children, Education Minister Ng Eng Hen said on Saturday.

He also revealed that a task force is due to make proposals soon on how this group of children can be taught the language.

'We think we've to make certain significant changes,' he told reporters after a conference on dyslexia, adding that parents would be given ample notice of the changes.

As for worries that Chinese standards would slip, Dr Ng pointed out that the education system allows children who are able to pursue the language at a higher level to do so.

'It's not that you have one method that you can teach the whole population,' he said, suggesting different strokes for different folks.

H1N1 vaccine effective

SWINE flu vaccines are still effective despite reported cases of mutations in the A(H1N1) virus, health experts in Europe and North America said Saturday.

Bruno Lina, director of the national flu virus monitoring centre for southern France, said the mutation of the virus - blamed for around 6,750 deaths so far worldwide - came as no surprise. 'It was expected, it was announced, and it will happen again,' Mr Lina told AFP, adding: 'That does not change anything with regard to treatment and vaccines.'

In the United States, Anne Schuchat of the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) said the mutation would have no impact on the effectiveness of the swine flu vaccine or the anti-virals.

The experts' comments came a day after the World Health Organisation announced that a mutation had been found in swine flu virus samples taken following the first two deaths from the pandemic in Norway.

However, the Geneva-based UN agency stressed that the mutation did not appear to cause a more contagious or more dangerous form of A(H1N1). It also revealed that a similar mutation had been observed in Brazil, China, Japan, Mexico, Ukraine and the United States as early as April.

The WHO underlined that there was no evidence of more infections or more deaths as a result, while antivirals used to treat severe flu - oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) - are effective on the mutated virus.

Another index, another drubbing for Malaysia

The release of the Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International (TI-CPI) this week was not exactly news that Malaysian Premier Najib Abdul Razak (picture) needed.

For seven months in power, he had been fighting fires on many fronts. But the opposition parties are holding up better than expected despite Mr Najib's (mitigated) success in winning back Perak state.

His coalition has not been doing too well at by-elections, and some of his allies are showing signs of disintegration; the economy refuses to impress foreign investors; and most important of all, his efforts at reforms have failed to excite the general population.

His time in power has also been badly coloured by the dubious methods of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), and the tragic death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock while being held by the MACC. The commission's tendency to investigate opposition personalities despite the small sums usually involved instead of persons connected to the Barisan Nasional where the sums concerned are astronomical has been glaring.

This, among other things, has greatly affected how the world views Malaysia's standard of governance.

Where financial corruption is concerned, official foot-dragging around the case of the Port Klang Free Trade Zone - a project where costs had ballooned by six times - has exasperated Malaysians.

What is interesting about the TI-CPI is that it deals with perception. And so, the fact that Malaysia has received its lowest point in 15 years (4.5, down from 5.1 last year) shows us how little impact Mr Najib's efforts have had on public perception of his administration. This is despite the control the federal government has on the print media, and despite the opposition's inability to present a united front on important issues.

In this year's report, Transparency International states that Malaysia's sharp decline "may be attributed to the perception that there has been little progress combating corruption and a lack of political will to implement effective anti-corruption measures. The MACC appears to focus on "small fish" and opposition politicians".

The country dropped nine positions from 47th to 56th. The fact that TI used as many as nine different surveys to arrive at Malaysia's score makes the result that much more credible, and that much harder for the government to ignore. It was not all that long ago that Malaysia was ranked 33rd. After all, Indonesia, a new democracy, unlike Malaysia, jumped by an impressive 15 spots from 126th last year to 111th this year.

Countries that fell by nine or more positions this time around include Lebanon (which fell 28 spots), Nepal (22), Algeria (19), Mongolia, Bolivia and Ukraine (18), Mexico and El Salvador (17), Paraguay (16), and Senegal, Madagascar and Greece (14). Most of these are countries in political crisis, and fell from low positions to start

You are what you eat

Food has been on my mind a lot of late. I've been trying to lose some weight ahead of a race I've signed up for in a few weeks, and as a result, I've been perpetually hungry for the past two months or so.

And as I carefully monitor my intake of calories, I find myself noticing people's eating habits more than I usually would. My friends say I'm just plotting how to steal their food, and there might be some truth in that. But I've also noticed that what, and how we eat, says a fair bit about who we are.

There are a few basic stereotypes that seem to hold true: Guys tend to eat with gusto and abandon, girls tend to pick at their salads in a bid to stay trim; girls like to save space for dessert while guys will have two helpings of the sweet stuff after a regular meal, especially if they're in the midst of National Service.

The cliche that those who pick at their food or count calories too fastidiously aren't much fun or spontaneous in life definitely seems to hold true, as I've not been very good company in my state of perpetually low blood sugar (although I promise this will change once I'm done with the run and can stuff my face again).

But as I probed deeper, I noticed more nuances than are immediately apparent. The ability to stick to a specific diet, for example, suggests tremendous willpower and discipline and not just a bland personality.

A female friend of mine once told me she switched to an all-fruit diet in a bid to lose weight to get in good physical shape for a sporting competition, and managed to stay on it for a few years. She succeeded in lowering her body fat percentage, but raising the eyebrows of friends with her quirky dietary habits. Despite all the challenges, she persevered and remains the only fruitarian I know to this day.

I have another friend who will not eat complicated foods. Yes, you read that right. No watermelon with too many seeds, no foods that require peeling or excessive mastication, no food with too many elements or parts to it. She is the mother of three kids and runs the communications department of an international financial institution, so I guess she can be forgiven for seeking out simplicity in her diet. But I still find it hilarious.

A few years ago, a triathlete mate of mine - he was among the pioneers of Singaporean athletes who chose to explore extreme endurance sport before it became a favourite yuppie past-time - had read somewhere that olive oil was a supreme endurance fuel. He then promptly proceeded to only eat rice drenched in olive oil for months on end in a bid to get faster and last longer.

I think he managed to achieve that, but he started to smell odd after a few weeks. I'm not sure it was worth becoming an olfactory outcast, but he seemed happy enough and also developed an impressive six-pack.

The wide range of diets being promoted on the market these days is baffling to say the least. No carbs, no carbs after 7pm, eat in the "zone", eat according to your blood-type, drink only liquid protein, take only five bites of food ... the list goes on.

My fruitarian friend pointed out that, besides being thoroughly confusing, these faddish diets had the other undesirable effect of disconnecting us from our best dietary guide - our own bodies.

She asked me recently if I like ice-cream, and I said that I didn't mind it, but had over the years developed an indifference to it that was borne out of the fact that it did not have much nutritional benefit and tended to make me paunchy.

"But what if your body is telling you that you need something like ice-cream? Aren't you basically training yourself to shut out what your body is telling you?" she asked.

I'm not sure my own body has my interests at heart all the time though. Most days it seems to be telling me that I need beer and chicken wings, and while I'm far from a nutritional expert, I somehow think that's not the best diet I could have.

But I agree that we seem to have lost touch with our own innate sense of what our bodies need in terms of food and nourishment in the clutter of newfangled dieting trends.

Maybe we should all make the effort to listen a bit better to our inner diet guru. Perhaps that way, how we eat really will reflect who we truly are.

3 lessons for S'poreans to learn from the way downturn was handled.

According to Law Minister K Shanmugam, there are three lessons for Singaporeans to take away from the way the Government, employers and unions responded to the downturn.

Managing the country's finances prudently and in a disciplined way – is the first lesson to be learnt from the financial crisis, said Mr Shanmugam.

Singapore's strong reserves were vital, as it enabled the Government to be decisive in introducing the S$20.5 billion Resilience Package.

The second lesson is the need to build on mutual trust.

A key factor that has helped Singapore come out of the downturn is the close relationship between the government, employers and unions. Hence, Mr Shanmugam feels it is critical for the labour movement to invest in union leaders who understand the fundamentals of Singapore's tripartite system.

Mr Shanmugam said: "You know very often we read in international rankings and reviews that in Singapore, you don't have unions which fight for workers or we rank low in this, that or the other.

"The reality is it all proceeds from misunderstanding because to protect workers rights in a real genuine sense, what you need is empowered unionists.

"And for a government to come in and make sure that there is equity between the employers and employees and working together, this is something unique that we have in Singapore and never, never let that go."

Mr Shanmugam said the third lesson is that Singaporeans must be proactive when responding to changing circumstances.

He added: "To thrive in the post recession global economic climate, Singapore must strike first. We must make full use of our advantages - our small and nimble size; our strong spirit of tripartism, an excellent business environment and the world's number one workforce to keep a few steps ahead of our competitors.

"How we harness opportunities, mitigate risks and make the kinds of choices we make today, will have a direct impact on the future of Singapore and the livelihood of Singaporeans. It is our responsibility to ensure that the choices we make will have a positive and lasting impact."

In this regard, the Ong Teng Cheong Institute for Labour Leadership has been in the forefront - conducting its "Upturn the Downturn" workshops which have been attended by some 1,300 unionists.

From 2010, the institute will start a pilot programme on e-learning, so that unionists need not absent themselves from work to attend courses.

This was revealed by the institute's chairman and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

Prices for theme park

UNIVERSAL Studios on Wednesday announced the long-awaited ticket prices for its theme park on Sentosa.

A one-day pass for weekdays will cost $66 for adults, $48 for children and $32 for senior citizens. For weekends, public holidays and eve of public holidays, a day-pass will cost $72, $52 and $36 respectively.

For those who want to beat the snaking queues which are expected at theme parks, they can buy an express pass, on top of the regular admission charge. The express pass is $30 for weekdays and non-school holidays, $48 for weekday rates during school holidays, and $68 for weekends and black-out dates. This express pass will give the ticket holder priority access to all the attractions and rides within the theme park. The number of such passes are limited daily.

Visitors to the park need pay only one price to get access to 24 attractions, 20 of which will be opened when the park is ready for operations, along with 30 themed restaurants and food carts, as well as another 20 retail shops and kiosks.

The theme park is expected to greet its first visitors early next year when the $6.59 billion integrated resort, Resorts World at Sentosa, opens its doors. In the first phase of its opening, it will open the theme park, casino, four hotels, a theatre with an aerial circus show and a half-kilometre strip of restaurants, bars and retail outlets.

Rates for three of its hotels were also revealed on Wednesday, with rates at Festive Hotel starting at $400, Hard Rock Hotel rates going at $450 and Hotel Michael rooms going for at least $50

M'sia must reform

THE World Bank said on Wednesday that Malaysia must introduce sweeping reforms if it wants to achieve its ambitious goal of becoming a developed nation by 2020.

'To reach the 2020 developed status, the World Bank is proposing a four-pillar strategy,' Mr Vikram Nehru, chief economist for East Asia and the Pacific, told reporters.

'Malaysia must specialise the economy further, improve the skills of its workforce, make growth more inclusive and strengthen public finances,' he told reporters at the launch of a report on the Malaysian economy.

The World Bank said Malaysia's economy will shrink 2.3 per cent this year but rebound to a 4.1 per cent expansion in 2010.

Mr Nehru said the South-east Asian economy was on track to grow between 5.6 to 5.9 per cent in 2011 and 2012.

The report said Malaysia faced the challenge of shifting from an upper-middle economy to a high-income economy.

Malaysia has lost edge as low-cost producer.

Malaysia risks missing its goal of becoming a high-income nation as it has lost its edge as a low-cost producer and lacks the investment to compete in more advanced industries, the World Bank warned today.

In its first country report on Malaysia, the Washington-based body also said that as a trade-dependent country, Malaysia should not unwind its RM67 billion in economic stimulus as that could choke off a nascent recovery.

“The economy seems to be caught in a middle-income trap - unable to remain competitive as a high-volume, low-cost producer, yet unable to move up the value chain and achieve rapid growth by breaking into fast growing markets for knowledge and innovation-based products and services,” it said.

Private investment in Malaysia, which famously spurned advice and cash from the International Monetary Fund in 1998, is below that of virtually every other Asian country and has fallen dramatically since the Asian financial crisis.

According to World Bank data, private investment in Malaysia fell to 12 per cent of gross domestic product in 2008 compared with 30 per cent prior to the Asian crisis.

The government that has ruled this country for 52 years has announced a series of economic reforms aimed at winning back foreign investment that increasingly finds a home in neighbouring Thailand and Indonesia.

However, portfolio and direct investment flows have been negative since the second quarter of 2008 and there have been few signs that investment has picked up in response to the government measures.

The World Bank noted that while Malaysia has a high proportion of high tech exports it served as a low-skilled assembler of imported parts “rather than a creator of technological and product innovations”.

One major limitation on moving up the economic value chain is Malaysia’s education system, which churns out tens of thousands of graduates who are ill-equipped for the kind of high-value work such as biotechnology that the government has identified as growth areas.

Education in Malaysia has become mired in a deep political row as the government recently switched to Malay language instruction for math and science from English, a move critics said was designed to appease its ethnic Malay voter base.

While private investment has plummeted, the government’s spending has risen sharply. Malaysia expects to rack up its biggest budget deficit in 20 years at 7.4 per cent of gross domestic product this year.

The government expects the economy to shrink 3 per cent this year and to grow by 3 per cent next year, although the World Bank was more optimistic.

“With East Asia leading the recovery and advanced economies showing progressive improvement, the Malaysian economy is projected to grow at 4.1 per cent in 2010, following a contraction of 2.3 per cent in 2009,” it said.

The bank was, however, less optimistic on the government’s plans to slash the budget deficit in 2010 to 5.6 per cent of GDP, forecasting that it would be 6.4 per cent of GDP.

S'pore is 3rd least corrupt

SINGAPORE has moved up a notch to become the world's third least corrupt nation, after New Zealand and Denmark, according to the annual ranking released by graft watchdog Transparency International (TI) on Tuesday.

Singapore was ranked the fourth least corrupt last year. This year it shares the third spot with Sweden, which tied in first place with New Zealand and Denmark in 2008. The other country in the top five spots is Switzerland.

TI attributed the strong performance of the five to the 'political stability, long-established conflict of interest regulations and solid, functioning public institutions' in these nations. The ranking measures perceived levels of public sector corruption in 180 countries and draws on surveys of businesses and experts.

The United States placed 19th in the 2009 survey. That was down from last year's 18th place. Somalia remains the world's most corrupt country, followed by Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan and Iraq.

The bottom five nations show that 'countries which are perceived as the most corrupt are also those plagued by long-standing conflicts, which have torn apart their governance infrastructure,' TI said.

New Zealand scored 9.4 points, Denmark 9.3 and Singapore 9.2, which is the same as last year.

China an economic threat

A CLEAR majority of Americans see China as an economic threat, a poll showed Monday, as Barack Obama sought to bolster relations on his first trip to Beijing and Shanghai as president.

More than 70 per cent of those questioned in the CNN poll said they considered the Asian giant to be an economic threat, while only 28 per cent disagreed with the notion.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said they saw China as a source of unfair competition for American companies, while only a quarter viewed China positively as a huge potential market for US goods.

'That may be why 71 per cent of Americans consider China an economic threat to the US,' said CNN polling director Keating Holland. 'Americans tend to view foreign countries as competition, and China is no exception.'

Americans were split on whether China posed a military threat with slightly more, 51 per cent, agreeing with the statement than disagreeing (47 per cent).

A quarter of the 1,014 people questioned in the weekend poll said China had a good track record on human rights, but 68 per cent suggested the rights of Chinese citizens were not being respected.

East Asia to lead the charge.

According to former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir,East Asia namely China,Taiwan,Japan,South Korea and to a lesser extend India will lead the Asian charge.There are two reasons why these Asian nations have done so well in their economic pursuits i.e its productivity and strong work ethic.These two traits will ensure that the 21st century belongs to Asia.He even mentioned that Middle East is the "the failed part" of the continent and mocking them as a people who stabbed each other despite "loving peace a lot".These Middle Eastern countries are not going to exert much impact on the Asian economic front.But it doesn't matter because Asia is such a big place.However,the former premier warned of the increasing trend among young people to ape Western culture.Today there are places in Tokyo where you see young people with multi-coloured hair who look like Red Indians.These are young people who have adopted Western values.Dr.Mahathir also said that Asia would lose its competitive advantage if it allowed such thinking to flourish.

Entrepreneurial youths

SINGAPORE is a nation of budding student entrepreneurs, according to a new survey.

A National University of Singapore Entrepreneurship Centre probe released on Monday shows that 18 per cent of tertiary students questioned want to become entrepreneurs after graduation.

This compares to 69 per cent who prefer a regular salaried job and 13 per cent who want to involve themselves in other activities or are unsure about their futures.

'Some people perceive that university students will definitely want to work in an MNC or with the Government after they graduate. This survey shows that some students have thought about being entrepreneurs before their graduation,' said Professor Wong Poh Kam, director of NUS' Entrepreneurship Centre.

Prof Wong pointed out that increased awareness of entrepreneurship due to initiatives by the Government and schools would be a major factor propelling youth towards wanting to run their own business.

He added: 'The younger generation will have different ideas from the previous generation. Last time people only wanted a job after graduation, but now perhaps they think differently.'

Rush for US varsities

AMERICAN universities are enrolling a new wave of Chinese undergraduates, according to the annual Open Doors report.

US foreign student boom
# Indians remained the biggest group of foreign students in the United States in the last academic year but their numbers appeared to be leveling off, while strong growth came from China, Vietnam and several other emerging economies.
# The United States hosts far more foreign students than any other country, owing to their universities' reputation, flexibility and concerted recruitment drives, said the Institute of International Education, an educators' group.
# The number of foreign students increased eight per cent to a record 671,616 in 2008-2009 from the previous academic year, the sharpest growth since 1980-81.
# Foreign students generate close to US$18 billion a year. Officials and educators said higher education was proving to be a strong engine to bolster the troubled US economy.
# Saudi Arabia was among the countries that sent more students to the United States last year, with the number jumping 28 per cent from a year earlier to 12,661.
# But China was the key driver of growth, with the number of Chinese students heading to the United States increasing 21 per cent to 98,510.
# There has been a dramatic growth in the number of Vietnamese students, with the figure soaring by 46 per cent last year.
# The only country that saw a significant decline was Japan. The number of Japanese studying in the United States slipped nearly 14 per cent, a trend the study pinned on Japan's shaky economy and shrinking population.
# More than half of US universities promoted themselves overseas. The United States remained by far the biggest single destination for students studying outside their own country, but the gap has narrowed in recent years with Britain, its biggest competitor.
# The United States in 2008 pulled in 21 per cent of the world's estimated three million foreign students, compared with 13 per cent for Britain. France came in third at nine per cent, followed closely by Germany.
# But in a sign there is room for growth, foreigners made up only 3.5 per cent of the overall student body in the United States, compared with 16.3 in Britain and 22.5 per cent in Australia.
# The study also found that a record 262,416 Americans studied overseas the same year. More than half went to Europe but a growing number headed elsewhere, with 19 per cent more going to China than a year ago and 14 per cent more to Japan. -- AFP.
While India was, for the eighth consecutive year, the leading country of origin for international students - sending 103,260 students, a 9 per cent increase over the previous year - China is rapidly catching up, sending 98,235 last year, a 21 per cent increase. The figures include undergraduates, graduate students, and students enrolled in non-degree programmes.

'I think we're going to be seeing 100,000 students from each, for years to come, with an increasing share of them being undergraduates,' said Ms Peggy Blumenthal, executive vice-president of the Institute of International Education, which publishes the report with support from the State Department.

Overall, the number of international students at colleges and universities in the United States rose by 8 per cent to an all-time high of 671,616 in the 2008-2009 academic year - the largest percentage increase in more than 25 years, according to the report.

With the current recession, the influx of international students has been especially important to the American economy, according to Dr Allan Goodman, president of the institute.

'International education is domestic economic development,' Dr Goodman said. 'International students shop at the local Wal-Mart, rent rooms and buy food. Foreign students bring US$17.8 billion (S$25 billion) to this country. A lot of campuses this year are increasing their international recruitment, trying to keep their programmes whole by recruiting international students to fill their spaces.'

Make toilets cool

JACK Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organisation, has a theory about why governments and people are so reluctant to talk about hygiene: it isn't cool.

'People demand a TV, not a toilet, because it is not aspirational or charismatic,' said Mr Sim, who does not hesitate to talk in graphic detail about the dangers of poor sanitation.

'Governments and people are not very receptive to being told they're dirty, that they need more toilets,' said Mr Sim on a visit to Mumbai, where more than half its 18 million residents live in slums and where the average ratio of people to toilets is 81:1.

In Mumbai, where teeming slums sit cheek by jowl with gleaming office blocks and luxury apartments, sanitation is not just a poor person's problem, said Sim, a native of Singapore.

'You are in such close proximity to slums, to people defecating and peeing in the open, that basically, you are walking in someone's poo,' Mr Sim said.

But the sight of people defecating by railway tracks or even by the roadside is so common that residents turn a blind eye to the problem and do not give it the seriousness it deserves. 'You see it long enough, and there is a basic acceptance that dirt is normal. But being repulsed by dirt, it's smell and sight is a natural defence against disease,' Mr Sim said.

US$80 is a 'good price'

SEVENTY-FIVE to 80 dollars (S$103 to S$110) a barrel is a satisfactory price for oil, the president of Opec said Monday, adding that the cartel may leave production unchanged at its meeting next month.

'Seventy-five to 80 dollars a barrel is a good price... for the recovery of the world economy,' Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, who is also Angola's oil minister, told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on Gulf energy security in Abu Dhabi.

Oil prices were trading within that range on international markets on Monday. De Vasconcelos said the cartel may leave production unchanged at its next scheduled discussion in Luanda on December 22, 'but there is a provision for an increase' in production.

'This situation will be discussed' at the December meeting, he added. He also told reporters on the sidelines of the conference that 'the market is oversupplied.' De Vasconcelos said the rate of compliance by Opec members with their production quotas 'is around 65 percent.' This rate is satisfactory, he added.

Opec expects oil demand to rise by 20 million barrels a day (bpd) to 106 million by 2030, he said, but warned of uncertainty in the market. 'There is too much uncertainty in the market over such matters as future world economic growth levels, consuming country policies and technology,' the Opec chief said in a speech to the conference.

'This makes it almost impossible to devise effective investment strategies for future production capacity, to meet forecast rising levels of demand. The latest projections in Opec's reference case see world oil demand rising by 20 million bpd to 106 million between 2008 and 2030. But these are only projections - the reality may turn out to be very different in an uncertain world.'

2012 debut hauls in US$65m

MOVIE fans are lining up for the end of the world, with the disaster tale 2012 hauling in US$65 million (S$90 million) domestically to debut at No. 1.

2012 has added US$160 million overseas for a worldwide total of US$225 million.

The Sony Pictures action saga tells the story of a scramble to save remnants of humanity aboard giant arks as the earth's crust shifts and flood waters pour over most of the planet.

Disney's A Christmas Carol slipped to No. 2 in its second weekend with US$22.3 million. The Jim Carrey holiday adventure raised its 10-day total to US$63.3 million.

Lionsgate's acclaimed drama Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire broke into the Top 10 as it expanded from limited release and took in US$6.1 million.

We should embrace migrants

JAPAN'S Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said on Saturday that his country, which is battling low birth rates and an ageing population, should make itself more attractive to migrants.

Japan has some of the world's strictest controls on immigration, and Mr Hatoyama admitted that he was broaching a 'sensitive issue'. But he said that as well as introducing pro-family policies, Japan should attempt to encourage migrants to live and work there.

'I think Japan should also make itself a country attractive to people so that more and more people, including tourists, hope to visit Japan, hope to live and work in Japan,' he said on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit.

'I am not sure if I can call this 'immigration policy', but what's important is to create an environment that is friendly to people all around the world so that they voluntarily live in Japan,' he said.

Japan has relatively few resident foreigners, although in recent years it has cautiously opened up its job market to nurses and care workers from some South-east Asian countries.

Its population has been shrinking since 2005. Despite efforts to raise the birth rate, a woman's average number of offspring now hovers around 1.3, well below the 2.07 needed to maintain the population.

Chinese want better lives

CHINA may not have a democratic system but its people are currently more interested in obtaining higher standards of living than they are in votes and freedom of speech.

That was the point made by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew on Friday during an exchange with Time International editor Michael Elliott.

The two were speaking during a dialogue at the Apec CEO Summit. Mr Lee was the guest speaker and Mr Elliott was the moderator of the session.

Mr Lee had been outlining what he saw as the benefits of the Chinese leadership system when Mr Elliot remarked: 'It's not a democratic system.'

'The Chinese people are not interested,' was the Minister Mentor's quick retort. He explained that as the Chinese were trying to catch up with the world, their primary concern was with achieving the standard of living they saw in the more developed Asian economies.

'You got your pro-democracy activists, but do the Chinese people worry about their vote and freedom of speech? They want the lives that they see in Hong Kong, in Singapore and before this downturn, in Taiwan,' he said.

China to keep up stimulus

CHINESE President Hu Jintao pledged on Friday that his country will continue to take vigorous steps to boost domestic demand.

'The series of measures China has adopted to counter the international financial crisis is conducive to the steady and relatively fast growth of the Chinese economy,' he said in a speech to Asia Pacific's business and political leaders in Singapore.

China's stimulus has also helped 'the international effort to alleviate the impact of the financial crisis and restore world economic growth', he added. But he also warned against protectionism, taking aim at the developed countries for unreasonable restrictions.

'We must continue to promote trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation and oppose protectionism in all its manifestations, particularly the unreasonable trade and investment restrictions imposed on developing countries,' said Mr Hu, without elaborating.

'The inherent problems of the international economic system have not been fully addressed and a comprehensive world economic recovery still faces many uncertainties and destabilising factors.'

His comments came a day after Apec finance ministers from the United States, China and 19 other economies rejected an early end to the huge stimulus packages they implemented to fight the global economic crisis.

38 dead in China snow storms

AT LEAST 38 people have died in some of the worst snows to hit northern China in decades, state media reported on Friday, but storms were tapering off, easing travel woes at airports and rail stations.

The most fatalities occurred in Shanxi province where nearly 500 traffic accidents left 24 people dead and 70 injured when heavy snowfall pummelled the region this week, the China News Service said.

In some places this week's snowstorms were the biggest in up to 60 years, leaving up to one million people in need of some form of disaster assistance, the report said.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited Hebei province and ordered stepped up efforts after six people in the province were killed due to the snow, including three children crushed when a school roof collapsed, it said.

Five others were reported dead in building cave-ins in Shaanxi province, while the other known fatalities occurred in Shandong province and the Ningxia region, it said.

The unusual amount of snow led to partial and full closures at airports in Beijing, Taiyuan, Xian, Shijiazhuang and other smaller cities, resulting in the cancellation or delay of hundreds of flights during the week, reports said. -- AFP

Small is beautiful.

CHIEF executives of the world's biggest companies will meet Apec leaders at Suntec on Friday to begin discussions on ways to rebuild the global economy.

But on Thursday, Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma of alibaba.com had a different message for 700 bosses of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) attending the Apec SME Summit at nearby Raffles City: Small is beautiful.

'In the last century, big was better,' said the China-based e-commerce company's founder. 'But in the 21st century, I believe small is beautiful because it is not about how much equipment you have, it is about how quickly you can change yourself to meet the market.'

Giving a rousing keynote address at the event - regarded as a sideshow to Friday's Apec CEO Summit - Mr Ma took a poke at larger corporates that suffered beatings during the financial crisis.

Speaking to a packed ballroom, he said the crisis had been disastrous for many big names in the West. 'All the big companies which we all wanted to be like - today, they have all died. But we SMEs - yes we felt the pain - but we are happier now because we survived.'

Mr Ma, who trained as a high school teacher in Hangzhou, founded the Alibaba Group in 1999 after successfully starting China Pages, widely believed to be the mainland's first dot.com, in 1995.

S'pore a less vulnerable city .

SINGAPORE is less vulnerable than other major Asian cities to the impacts of climate change, but that is mainly from having enough resources to adapt, according to a new World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) report released this week.

Singapore remains susceptible to higher temperatures, increased rainfall, coastal inundation and food-security issues as it relies on neighbouring countries for food, said the report, Mega-Stress for Mega-Cities', which examines 11 Asian cities based on previously published data.

'Adaptation should not replace mitigation (in Singapore), but instead work in tandem with it,' said the report, which graded cities on factors such as their exposure to storms, sea-level rise and drought, the population and assets at risk from climate change, and their ability to adapt.

For example, the large, relatively poor city of Dhaka in Bangladesh is rated most vulnerable - its 13 million residents are at risk from floods and storm surges. And in Phnom Penh, which has 14 per cent of Cambodia's population but contributes 28 per cent of its gross domestic product, heavy rainfall threatens rice crops and tourism.

Cities and urban areas worldwide are economically vital, house half the world's population and produce three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The WWF hopes the report will galvanise Asian governments to cooperate on adaptation measures, said WWF Singapore managing director Amy Ho, who added: "It's not just the proportion of global emissions that one country contributes. Every country, big or small, has to do its part.'

Unruly football fans.

The final football match between Negri Sembilan and Kelantan saw the unruly behaviour of football fans in spite of the presence of police personel.They have no respect for the laws at all.Worst still,they set fires to a section of the stadium causing losses amounting to hundred of thousands of ringgit.The Kelantan state was slapped with a fine of only RM50,000 but the FA of Malaysia has to fork out RM138,150 for the damage.In my view,a strong message has to be sent to the Kelantan state so that future matches involving Kelantan will not see a repeat of last week episode.

MACC 's method of fighting corruption.

The NST reported that MACC will propose to the govt to increase the salaries of our cabinet ministers,deputy ministers,MPs and state assemblymen as in S'pore in order to combat corruptions.I think that this idea is too simplistic.Corruption in our society will not be eradicated by one strategy alone.It should be tackled through civic or religious educations not to mention the strict and fair enforcement of the laws.The MACC must be seen to be independent and act fairly and without favour when executing the laws.It has to act fast to gain the public confidence and trust again.

China executes trouble-makers.

China has executed nine people convicted of violent crimes during ethnic rioting in the far western Xinjiang region in July, the first to be put to death over the unrest, the China News Service said on Monday.

Almost 200 people died in the rioting between Uighurs and Han Chinese, which was the worst ethnic violence in decades in the majority Muslim region.
A frame grab taken from footage shot on October 14, 2009, shows defendants, involved in ethnic riots in far western Xinjiang region in July, during their trial in Urumqi, Xinjiang Autonomous Region. (REUTERS/CCTV via Reuters TV/Files)

The nine were executed after a judicial review by the country's supreme court, the semi-official news agency said on its website. It did not give further details.

Death sentences have previously been announced for nine people, and suspended death sentences, which are often commuted to life sentences, for another three.

Judging by their names, at least two of those sentenced were Han Chinese, while the others appeared to be Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic group that calls Xinjiang its homeland.

Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress, condemned the executions and said the government had denied the prisoners' rights by denying them a final visit from their families.

"They have not respected Chinese law in the trials or in carrying out the sentencing. This is not justice. We believe that the United States and Europe have not put enough pressure on China to resolve this issue," Raxit said.

Twenty people were indicted on Monday on charges related to the deaths of 18 people, destruction of property and other crimes during the rioting, the China News Service added.

In July's ethnic violence, Uighurs attacked majority Han Chinese in regional capital Urumqi after taking to the streets to protest against attacks on Uighur workers at a factory in southern China in June that left two Uighurs dead.

Han Chinese in Urumqi sought revenge two days later.

The violence left 197 people, mostly Han Chinese, dead and wounded more than 1,600, according to official figures.

Forthcoming trip to Shanghai.

I will be holidaying in Shanghai this coming school holidays.Wonder what the weather would be like?Read from online news that the residents there faced cold winds a couple of days ago.Just hope the weather will not be too cold but I am prepared with sweater and thick clothing.Spent quite a sum on the two items.

Singapore needs Immigrants.

SINGAPORE will go the way of the dinosaurs, without the influx of permanent residents and new citizens, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong warned on Saturday night.

Making a compelling case for the need to take in more new immigrants, he trotted out various sets of figures to drive home the stark reality Singapore is facing: 'In the last 10 years, the number of people aged 65 and above has grown by about 100,000 while the number of children aged below 15 had shrunk by about 50,000.'

And despite all the efforts to encourage marriage and procreation, the total fertility rate climbed only marginally from 1.26 in 2004 to 1.28 last year - far short of the 2.1 needed to replace father and mother. In absolute terms, Singapore needs about 60,000 babies per year, but last year only 32,400 citizen babies were added.

Calling this an 'unsustainable demographic structure,' SM Goh told residents and grassroots leaders at a Deepa Thirunal event at the Braddell Heights Community Club: 'If we do not take in any more new immigrants, our population will begin to shrink in 2020. That is only 11 years away!

'To sustain our present standard of living, we need to top up our population with immigrants, particularly those with skills, entrepreneurial drive and talent. Without them... our growth rate would be easily 1 to 2 percentage points lower.

'Without the foreign workforce, our flats and MRT will not be built, our buses will come to a standstill, our healthcare services will degrade, and many investors, including Singaporean ones, will uproot and go where talent is abundant. Instead of sacrificing just 1-2 percentage points of growth, our economy will shrink, and our quality of life decline.'

Beyond just sustaining the quality of life here, immigrants enrich the society, said Mr Goh, adding:' Immigrants inject a certain vitality and diversity to our society, adding vibrancy to our economy, and broadening our horizons in other fields like the arts, music, sports, and philanthropy.'

Floods in East Coast States.

The past few days drizzle has caused some parts of Terengganu and Kelantan to be flooded.It signifies the onset of the annual monsoon season in the Peninsular of Malaysia especially the two east coast states..As usual,properties and lives will be affected.The govt has frozen civil servants' leave so that they will be available should the needs arise.More resources need to be put in place so that should the flood situations worsen,prompt help is forthcoming and quickly channels to the affected areas.Floods are annual phenomena but we can only minimize its impact.

Ban on bottled water.

The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) has called on the authorities to ban bottled water in the country, while also warning consumers not to refill plastic bottles or reuse them as chemical leaching can pollute the water within.

“Consumers should not refill the plastic bottle with tap water,” CAP president S.M. Mohamed Idris said at a press conference on Wednesday, adding that such bottles were made for one-time use only and would not stand up to repeated wear, dishwater treatment, direct sunlight, high temperatures or rough handling.

“Studies show that when subjected to stress tests, the bottles are more likely to leach plastic materials into the water the longer the bottles are reused,” he said.

Mohamed Idris said moreover, there was evidence that a toxic material called antimony (used in making polyethylene bottles) can begin leaching into the water immediately, even when it’s first used.

“In 2006, scientists in Germany found that antimony begins leaching into the water immediately. The longer the bottled water is in storage, the more toxic it becomes.

“High concentrations of antimony can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea,” he said.

Mohamed Idris said Malaysians consumed an average of 100 million bottles of bottled water every year.

“For the last two decades, bottled water has become a part of every social function.

“It’s amazing how Malaysians can be lured into paying exorbitant prices for what flows almost freely from the tap.

“The cost per bottle here ranges from 40sen, if bottles are bought in bulk, to RM5 a bottle in hotels.

“However, it is little known that 90% of the cost of bottled water is used for the label, cap and bottle,” he claimed.

He said it was also not commonly known that coloured bottle caps were designated for natural water, which was normally more expensive, while white caps indicated distilled drinking water.

Mohd Idris also noted that plastic bottles normally ended up in landfills and could take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.

“It is estimated that 1.5 million barrels of crude oil or 2.7 million tonnes of plastic are used annually worldwide to produce plastic used to bottle water.

“The bottles that are thrown away create mountainous rubbish heaps, while incinerating used bottles produces toxic by-products like chlorine gas and ash laden with heavy metals that are all tied to a host of human and animal health problems,” he said.

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MCA crisis.

With the implementation of the 'Greater Unity Plan' endorsed by the two feuding parties,i.e OTK and CSL ,it looks like the problems within MCA has not ended.It has created a new crisis with Liow and Wee on one side against OTK and CSL on the other.Personally I think MCA should call for another EGM to settle the impasse.But the election should start from the branch,division right up to the national level.Only through this way could the new central delegates make wise decisions.

Graduates placements in Pre-schools.

The DPM who is also the Education Minister was reported to have said in Parliment that soon pre-schools kids will have graduates teaching them.This is another step to uplift our education standard or to lessen graduates unemployment in the country.He also mentioned that 50% of the pre-school curriculum will be taught in English.Hope it does not sound too ambitious.Do our grads have the confidence and the language skills needed to conduct themselves?

Early Winter in Beijing.

This year Beijing residents experience the arrival of winter much earlier,probably by 2 months.It seems that Beijing is facing some kind of drought and the govt is trying to mitigate and lessen the impact by spraying a kind of chemical in the air.I guess this caused the early coming of winter in Beijing.Hope Shanghai is spared the agony of cold winter.

Vernacular schools.

The recent statements aired by Prof.Khoo regarding single stream schools are too simplistic.Just because the Chinese parents wants their kids to study in Chinese primary or secondary schools does not mean that they do not place much importance on national unity.From his statements on TV7,it is as if only by having single stream schools as in S'pore(mentioned by Prof Khoo)will national unity be achieved.Doesn't he ever heard of this slogan 'Unity in diversity?"He even mentioned that the Chinese should decide whether they want to live here or in China?I think he has crossed the line and it is seditious.Singapore has implemented single stream with English as the medium of teaching and learning.It is a totally different scenario there altogether.What about Thailand?The Thai govt are facing strong resistance in the deep south from Thai muslims because they don't trust the central govt.They also want to learn their language and culture.They want self rule or at least autonomy.

Mishap at Unity Camp.

The recent tragic death of three school children at the Unity Camp in Gopeng should set as an eye-opener to all parties concerned.Extra precautionary measures must be taken at future unity or 1Malaysia camps so as to avoid a repeat of the tragedy.It is such a pity that young lives are lost due to the carelessness or casual attitude of those in charge of such camps.My sincere condolence to the parents of the three deceased.The MOE should offer their assistance to those parents so that they could put this sad episode behind them and get on with their lives.

Abuse of maids.

There is a great demand for foreign maids in our country.This is a natural development as our country progresses and more and more families are moving towards double-income households.But as more maids are employed,we also hear and read in the news about maids being abused and tortured by their employers.This phenomena is disturbing and unhealthy especially now that our mutual relationships with Indonesia is not as solid as before.The recent death of an Indonesian maid who was tortured by her employer is bound to worsen the strained relationship between peoples of the two countries.So Malaysian employers please show more restrain and patience when dealing with local or foreign maids.They are here to help us with our chores and not to be abused.

A scary experience.

It was reported that a plane overshot the airport it was supposed to land by 240km in the US because the two pilots in the cockpit were too engrossed with their laptop rather than the cockpit displays.Well it is really very frightening and scary to read such news.These 2 pilots were too busy with whatever they were doing until they were ticked off by one of the flight attendants.Imagine if you were on the plane and how will you feel about the whole episode.The pilots must be professional in their jobs as many lives depend on them.

Single Stream Schools.

It was reported in Parliment that the govt should set up single stream Secondary schools to instil greater unity and 1Malaysia spirit among school children.I fully supported the idea that all secondary students should study under one roof.As MP Tony Pua mentioned all secondary schools under the MOE like residential schools,Matriculation colleges and others must be included and not confined to only normal sec schools.Then only we will achieve greater unity among the races.Will it materialise?

A blackout.

There was a blackout in my residential area last night and it was only restored at about one something in the early morning.Hope it will not happen too frequently as it will only bring inconveniences to many people especially students.

Brisk Walking.

Every Sunday morning my family and I will be in Tanjung for our morning jog/brisk walking.There are quite a number of them,whether young or old walking and running casually.Normally the walking will take about 40 minutes and then we will take our breakfast.This way I hope will bring the family closer.A healthy family is a happy family.

A shocking news.

Just read from The Star that Ong Ka Chuan saved a teenager from repeated rapes at the rest area along the NS highway.The culprits were caught and I hope that our police will put them behind bars.These are dangerous criminals on the loose.To all those gals on the highways,please take extra precautions.Don't be easily conned by anybody.