KUALA LUMPUR: The case filed against Malaysian tycoon and Maxisowner T. Ananda Krishnan by India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has no impact on Malaysia's telecommunications industry, says Deputy Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Joseph Salang.

He said the Malaysian authorities would not conduct any investigation on the tycoon.

“At the moment it's only an investigation (by India's CBI). There will be no investigation on the Malaysian side as we have been very transparent in how we manage our telecommunications industry,” he said.

Salang was speaking to reporters after opening the Communications and Connectivity Futures 2011 forum on behalf of Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim. - Bernama

PETALING JAYA: Genting (M) Bhd’s world-class casino in New York will open on Oct 28, offering locals and tourists a selection of games, entertainment and gastronomical indulgences.

The Resorts World Casino New York is the city’s first casino situated at the Aqueduct Racetrack adjacent to the John F. Kennedy International Airport. It will be run by Genting’s wholly-owned subsidiary Genting New York LLC.

In the first phase, the casino will open the Times Square Casino on the first floor with 2,485 video lottery terminals and electronic table games.

This casino will offer dining selections called the Aqueduct Buffet, Wolfgang Puck Express, Burger and Bar 360 which features a theatre-in-the-round setting around a stage where patrons can enjoy live shows, major sporting events on a panoramic TV screen or sit on new terraces overlooking the racetrack.

"There were many ups and downs, and moments over the years when we thought 'Can we do it? Should we continue? Or is it really just too tough?," he told Reuters, as data showing the success of his RTS,S vaccine were unveiled at an international conference on malaria.

"But today I feel fabulous. This is a dream of any scientist -- to see your life's work actually translated into a medicine ... that can have this great impact on peoples' lives. How lucky am I?"

Final stage clinical trial data on RTS,S, also known as Mosquirix, showed it halved the risk of African children getting malaria, making it likely to become the world's first successful vaccine against the deadly disease.

While scientists say it is no "silver bullet" and will not end the mosquito-borne infection on its own, it is being hailed as a crucial weapon in the fight against malaria and one that could speed the path to eventual worldwide eradication.

Malaria is caused by a parasite carried in the saliva of mosquitoes. It kills more than 780,000 people per year, most of them babies or very young children in Africa.

Cohen's vaccine goes to work at the point when the parasite enters the human bloodstream after a mosquito bite. By stimulating an immune response, it can prevent the parasite from maturing and multiplying in the liver.

Without that immune response, the parasite re-enters the bloodstream and infects red blood cells, leading to fever, body aches and, in some cases, death.

Although Cohen's scientific work has been largely in Belgium, where he runs a GSK laboratory, the final-stage trials of RTS,S were conducted in Africa, where malaria hits hardest.

With GSK working in partnership with the non-profit PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), the trials became Africa's largest-ever medical experiment as the vaccine was tested in around 16,000 children across seven countries.

Cohen said that if all goes to plan, RTS,S could be licensed and rolled out by 2015.

SOUL SEARCHING

As he looks back at the vaccine's long, slow development, the bearded 68-year-old molecular biologist laughs at how naive he was when he first agreed to take on the task.

It was April 1, 1987 when his boss at the drug company, then called Smith, Kline & French, asked him to be head of the malaria vaccine research programme, just after an early-stage experimental vaccine and failed a test.

"Unfortunately, it was not a great success. Only one volunteer out of the several that were vaccinated was actually protected. So, after quite a bit of optimism, there was then quite a bit of soul searching," Cohen said.

"I did not actually know much about malaria, apart from about the enormous medical burden it represented. But I felt I was taking on an enormous scientific challenge, and that was exciting for a relatively young scientist."

Having come from academia and post-doctorate studies into what he said were "sometimes esoteric questions" of molecular biology, he was also attracted by the prospect of doing something "very meaningful" in terms of global health.

Getting on for a quarter of a century later, Cohen said he had "never dreamed it would take this long".

He was also careful to underline that this was a first step, as well as a world first. GSK, MVI and several other research groups and drug firms are already working on next generation vaccines and on other ways of making malaria shots they hope will better the roughly 50 percent success rate of RTS,S.

"The work is not over, that is for sure," Cohen said.

REUTERS - Men are diagnosed with breast cancer at less than one percent the rate of women, but when they are the disease is often more advanced on average, and they are more likely to die from it, according to an international study.

Researchers led by Mikael Hartman at the National University of Singapore combined cancer registries from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Singapore and Geneva, Switzerland, with cases dating back to 1970.

The data included about 460,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer, and about 2,700 men.

Men were more likely to have the disease that had spread beyond the breast by the time they were diagnosed. In treatment, they had less surgery and radiation than women but similar rates of chemotherapy and hormone treatment.

Over the entire time period, men had a 72 percent chance of surviving breast cancer in the five years after a diagnosis, compared to 78 percent in women.

"Men who develop a breast lump delay seeing their doctor longer than a comparable woman with similar symptoms," Hartman said in an email to Reuters Health.

"Male breast cancer is rare but men can develop the disease and should be aware that they should seek care if a breast lump develops."

His team said in the Journal of Clinical Oncology that previous studies have shown that it typically takes a few months from when men start getting symptoms until they are diagnosed with breast cancer.

Men are most commonly in their 60s or 70s when diagnosed, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Radiation exposure and diseases that increase estrogen levels, such as liver cirrhosis or the genetic disorder Klinefelter syndrome, are among the factors that raise a man's risk.

"It's not surprising that men with breast cancer present with later stages," said Susan Dent, from the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre in Canada, who was not involved in the study.

"That's just because the awareness of the fact that breast cancer can occur in men is just not as acute. Men aren't as likely to think of it, and health care providers aren't as likely to think of men having breast cancer."

Men should be particularly aware of breast cancer, and possibly consider getting screened for it, if they have a family history of the disease, including a predisposition to cancer caused by mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which are well known to raise women's risk of breast and ovarian cancers, she added.

Because of recommendations for regular mammograms in women starting in their 40s or at age 50, depending on the country, many cancers are caught in women before they have any symptoms.

But the United States Preventive Services Task Force, a federally-supported panel that sets guidelines for cancer screening, does not recommend regular breast cancer screening in men without symptoms.

"In total, male breast cancer is still a rare event. Never would I recommend that all men routinely go out and get screened," said Dent. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/n3B9oU

(Reporting from New York by Genevra Pittman at Reuters Health; Editing by Elaine Lies and Yoko Nishikawa)

A TEENAGER who was raped by her stepfather when she was 13 has been left high and dry by her own mother she kicked the girl out of their home two weeks ago.

With nowhere to go, Ita went to a public complaints centre in Johor Baru to pour out her sorrows and to seek help.

The girl, now 15, said she was first raped by her stepfather two years ago.

“I told my mother about the incident but she believed him instead and I continued to be his victim,” she told Sinar Harian when met at the centre on Monday.

Ita pleaded with her mother to keep watch over her, leading to an occasion when her mum caught the man assaulting her.

She said she was initially relieved that her mother decided to lodge a police report against her stepfather.

“However, my hope of seeing my father go to prison for his actions was dashed when my mum withdrew the report,” Ita said, adding that her mother gave the excuse that she did not want to see her (Ita's) two step-siblings growing up without a father.

“I love my mother. She is, after all, the only mother I have,” sobbed Ita, saying she was devastated when she was thrown out of the house.

KUALA TERENGGANU: Amendments will be made to the Environment Quality Act 1974 which will impose stiffer penalties against those who contravene the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) regulations.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas said the Department of Environment (DOE) had proposed that penalty for those who commit offences under Section 2 of the Act to be increased from RM100,000 to RM500,000.

“A new section 34A(a) will enable the EIA director-general to have the power to stop a project which infringes EIA regulations.

“The increase in penalties is appropriate because those who disobey the regulations are mostly those who commit serious environmental infringements,” he told reporters after launching the National Environment Week here yesterday 

He said the amendments would include the need for EIA consultants to register with the DOE.

“We want to ensure only qualified individuals are registered and certified as EIA reports in the past have been substandard and prepared by non-credible consultants,” he added.

Uggah said the proposed amendments would be sent to the Cabinet next week for approval and would be tabled in Parliament in March, 2012.

CARDIFF: Cardiff City has signed a memorandum of understanding with Felda to bring community development through football among its families.

Among key areas to be looked at are developing a sport-based curriculum for higher secondary school students, English language proficiency and coaching and grassroots education.

The agreement was penned by Felda director-general Datuk Dzulkifli Abdul Wahab and Cardiff City chairman Datuk Chan Tien Ghee at the club’s stadium.

A pilot project between the two organisations started on Sept 19 at Felda Jengka in Pahang with 70 participating students.

The club’s Head of Education Steven Ellis said the syllabus, based on UK’s Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC), will be equivalent to SPM-V qualifications and will commence in September next year.

Two coaching staff, including former players Kevin Cooper and Matthew Holland, have been based in Malaysia since July.

“This development is an extension of what Cardiff City aims to contribute to Malaysia in terms of community development,” Chan said after the signing ceremony on Monday.

Dzulkifli said that eventually, Felda plans to introduce the programme in all its 317 schemes across the country. — Bernama

MEDAN: The parents of an Indonesian migrant worker who died in Malaysia say officials have flown the wrong body home.

Friends of Simon Petrus Sitepu, 22, called his parents to say he had died after being hit by heavy machinery while working at an oil palm plantation in Kedah.

The parents went to the airport here yesterday to collect what they thought was his body, but broke down in tears when they saw it was of someone else.

His father Bener Sitepu said it appeared to be that of a 40-year-old man of Indian descent.

Officials at Malaysia’s consulate here acknowledged there was a mix-up. — AP

IPOH: Two foreigners were brutally killed in what police have classified as a robbery-cum-murder.

Their remains were found in a 50m-deep ravine under a bridge along the Gerik-Kupang road.

A third victim, aged 31, is fighting for his life at the intensive care unit of Gerik Hospital. He had a wound on his forehead when he was found by a passer-by who immediately alerted the police on Monday.

State police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Mohd Shukri Dahlan said police believed all three victims were Pakistanis and were abducted and robbed by a group of more than five men.

Initial investigations showed that the three victims were intercepted by the group somewhere near Butterworth, he added.

“We believe that after relieving the victims of cash and other belongings, the robbers decided to finish them off by pushing them off the bridge.

“Our personnel are monitoring the condition of the third victim, who is stable but very weak,” he said, adding that police hoped to obtain more information if the victim manages to pull through over the next 24 hours.

DCP Mohd Shukri said police were still waiting for the post-mortem reports of the two victims to determine the cause of death.

KUALA LUMPUR: Police should go all out to find the father of the newborn baby girl who was murdered by her 16-year-old mother in Betong, Sarawak, Women, Family and Community Deve­lopment Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said.

“He should be brought to court for this crime too, and not just the girl, because he is equally responsible for what has happened.”

Shahrizat was commenting on a recent case where a newborn was found slashed to death by her mother after her 27-year-old boyfriend’s family refused to accept the child.

She said this after recording a Children’s Day message with 74 pupils at the National Population and Family Development Board’s Permata Timang kindergarten yesterday.

The message was recorded in conjunction with the 58th World Children’s Day, which will be celebrated at Sri Pentas on Satur­day.

She added that the ministry had made plans to expand children’s welfare work under the 1Malaysia Social Welfare (KAR1SMA) programme, which was launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in August.

Earlier, Shahrizat gave 800 low-income members of the Indian community a one-off token of RM200 each at a KAR1SMA Deepavali event, jointly organised by the ministry and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk G. Palanivel.

“Take care of your families. You must pay attention to your family’s needs and make sure your children go to school,” Shahrizat urged parents while delivering her opening speech at the event.

Palanivel later said that low-income members of the Indian community who had registered at MIC service centres in other states would also be given the assistance before Deepavali on Oct 26.

PUTRAJAYA: The movements of foreign students in the country especially those attending short-term courses are being closely monitored to ensure they are not here to commit crimes, the Home Minister said.

The Government was very concerned with the increasing numbers of crime cases such as vice and drug smuggling involving foreign students,Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said.

“If our monitoring shows that they are here not to study or, worse, are involved in criminal activities or causing problems in the community, action will be taken against them,” he said at a press conference after the weekly meeting with state Immigration directors here yesterday.

Hishammuddin added that the universities or colleges might also be hauled up if their students were found to have breached the terms and conditions of their student visas.

“They (the universities and colleges) will have to be responsible and monitor their movements,” he said.

He said there were about 110,000 foreign students in the country, and about 30,000 of them were attending six-month courses, mostly in technical skills.

“It is best for us to be proactive due to the growing cases of transborder crimes involving vice and drug smuggling.

“I think there is a clear movement of drugs from the Golden Triangle in the past, to what we see as the Golden Crescent in the present, using us as the transit point.

“If we link this movement with the grey or black money and in some cases the funding of terrorism mixed up with smuggling of drugs, we will have a volatile cocktail if we don’t do something about it,” he said.

Hishammuddin said the monitoring efforts were jointly conducted by the ministries of home affairs, education, higher education and human resources.

Four months ago, Immigration Department anti-human trafficking unit operations sector chief Abdul Hamid Ahmad said that more than 20 private higher learning institutions had been blacklisted by the Home Ministry after they were found to have misused the foreign student visas

PETALING JAYA: A former English teacher at a language centre here claims that many foreigners there had no intention of studying but merely signed up for courses to get student visas.

“They are here legally but their intention to be students is questionable,” said the teacher, known only as Linda.

She said the foreign students had even admitted to her that they just wanted to get the visas to stay in the country.

“They even asked me: ‘What are you going to do about it? The centre has already taken money from us.’”

Linda added that she quit her job after teaching in the centre for a year, partly because she was frustrated at the students’ attitude.

“They would come to class and mark their attendance. Then, they would disappear and return at the end of class to sign out,” she said.

Linda also claimed that some foreigners in her class spoke excellent English but deliberately failed their examinations so that they could re-take the course.

She said some had businesses such as trading car spare parts and running beautician services.

JOHOR BARU: A 37-year-old woman who broke up with her boyfriend of 18 years could face the possibility of contracting AIDS after she was injected with a needle at a shopping mall here.

The victim, who only wanted to be known as Fanny, believed that her former boyfriend Jerry, 40, paid somebody to inject her with a HIV-positive needle after their relationship soured.

“When Jerry told me he was terminally ill, I quit my job to care for him,” she told reporters during a press conference organised by the Mentri Besar’s special aide Loh Teh Hian.

“Every time I told him I was leaving him, he would threaten me by saying he would inject me with a HIV-positive needle and that made me stay by his side.”

She added that he became short-tempered and violent.

Fanny said that she could not take the abuse and moved out of Jerry’s apartment last Tuesday, but met him at the Holiday Plaza last Sunday to talk things over.

She said that at a fast-food outlet there, she felt a piercing sensation in her back and saw a man fleeing when she turned to look.

He dropped a syringe on the ground and Jerry told her she had been injected with HIV-positive blood.

She said that although a test had showed her to be HIV negative, she had to wait six months to be sure.

Johor Baru (South) OCPD Asst Comm Zainuddin Yaakob said police were investigating the matter under the Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt.

PETALING JAYA: A “student visa for sale” operation is making it easy for many foreigners to do everything else but study in Malaysia.

For a fee of between RM500 and RM1,000 paid to a middleman, the foreigners can obtain or renew their student visas without going to the Immigration authorities, according to those in the know about the operation.

Instead of attending classes, the foreigners operate businesses, such as trading in car spare parts and offering beauty services, while many others are involved in vice.

There are about 110,000 foreign students in the country, and about 30,000 of them attend six-month courses, mostly in technical skills.

Other developments:

> Action will be taken against these foreign students if the authorities find out that they are involved in criminal activities or caused problems in the community, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein;

> Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin said the ministry usually dealt with higher learning institutions which would report students suspected to be abusing their student visas;

> Immigration director-general Datuk Alias Ahmad warned that those found abusing the student visas would be blacklisted and barred from entering the country. 

KUALA LUMPUR: Petroleum companies have been given another one to two years to make Euro 4 diesel available to the public, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha.

He said the petroleum industry was still not ready to make Euro 4 diesel available in the Malaysian market.

“Euro 4 diesel is not requested by the automobile industry,” he told a press conference yesterday after attending the 1st Malaysian-German Sustainable Automotive Mobility Conference here.

“Many companies like Volks­wagen and Mercedes Benz are not bringing in diesel vehicles to the country,” he added.

On how soon Euro 4 diesel, which is more enviroment-friendly, would be made available in Malaysia, Kong said the Interna­tional Trade and Industry Ministry was looking into it.

Euro emission standards are enforced throughout the European Union, and the higher the standard (meaning lower sulphur content), the lower the emission of pollutants.

On another matter, Kong said infrastructure that allowed electric vehicle owners to change their batteries needed to be set up to encourage the use of such vehicles.

“Making the shift from fuel vehicles to electric vehicles is difficult without such infrastructure.

“It should allow electric vehicle owners to change their battery instead of charging it and the time it takes for them to do it should not be longer than filling up one’s tank,” he added.

However, he said, there was an insufficient number of electric vehicles in the country presently to require the setting up of the infrastructure.

KUALA LUMPUR: Proton Holdings Bhd is looking to commercialise its electric vehicles in 2013.

The vehicles, which are now in the test fleet stage, will be brought to the commercial front to cater to an increasing demand for full electric cars, Proton Holdings director Datuk Zainuddin Che Din said.

“Currently, we have already delivered three Proton Saga EV and five units of the Proton Exora Range Extender EV to the Government for the test fleet.

“In the process of commercialising the vehicle, we are looking to provide at least 200 Range Extenders and 150 Proton Saga EV’s to the Government by the end of next year,” he said here yesterday.

He said the cars would be competitively priced once commercialised.

The Proton Saga EV is expected to be sold at RM70,000 and the Proton Exora Range Extender at about RM100,000.

“The price will be cheaper and competitive for a full electric car in the country,” said Zainuddin, who is also the project director of Proton’s Green Tech Department.

He said that to accommodate the needs of the electric cars once commercialised, Proton and the Government were working on a mechanism to build infrastructure to place charging centres.

“The charging stations will be placed initially in Putrajaya, Cyberjaya and certain prime locations in Kuala Lumpur. — Bernama