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Murder probe as single mum of four dies BorneoPost Online | Borneo , Malaysia, Sarawak Daily News » Sabah - New 2 Borneo

Murder probe as single mum of four dies

Posted: 28 Dec 2013 09:25 AM PST

by Murib Morpi. Posted on December 29, 2013, Sunday

KOTA KINABALU: A woman, who was found bleeding and unconscious in a drain at Kampung Delima, Jalan Sulaman a day after Christmas, has died.

The woman, a 33 years old single motherof four children, succumbed to severe head injuries at Queen Elizabeth Hospital around midnight Friday.

Acting Kota Kinabalu police chief, Superintendant M Chandra, who confirmed this when contacted, said they have classified the case as murder.

The motive behind the incident is still being investigated and police are urging anyone with information on the case to come forward.

The body of the victim, whose identity has not been officially released, was discovered floating face down in the drain by three neighbours after heavy rain on Thursday.

It was learned that the three pulled her out and rushed her to the nearby hospital.

It was still unclear if authorities have identified any suspects or questioned any witnesses.

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Borneo Safari panel gives RM11,333 for palliative care

Posted: 28 Dec 2013 09:24 AM PST

by Mariah Doksil. Posted on December 29, 2013, Sunday

KOTA KINABALU: Borneo Safari Organising Committee recently handed over RM11,333 in donations to the Palliative Care Association of Kota Kinabalu for use in the care of patients with advanced cancer affliction.

The amount was raised through the tree planting initiative organised during the recently concluded 23rd Borneo Safari International Off-Road Challenge 2013 in November.

Borneo Safari International Off-Road Challenge event director and also president of Sabah Four Wheel Drive Club (SFWD), Edward Lingkapo, said: "Steering away from the competitive nature of the sport, I am glad the convoy of the 23rd Borneo Safari International Off Road Challenge 2013 took time off from their eight day contest to do some charity work."

"All in all, through the green project we hope to raise funds for charitable organization while working towards a greener planet and a better community. I would like to thank all the participants and donors for supporting the event's charity project in pushing for a greener planet," he added.

Lingkapo handed over a mock cheque yesterday to the honorary secretary of Palliative Care Association of Kota Kinabalu (PCA), Morna Chua Wui Lang and senior nurse-in-charge, Misah Paidi, witnessed by committee members of the club and members of the press.

According to Morna, PCA's expenses come to around RM400,000 yearly and there are currently some 80 patients under its care.

Home Care Programme is the primary programme by the association and is run for the full benefit of the community. It is a voluntary support service, focusing on providing adequate pain and symptoms control to patients in their homes for free. The programme enables patients to spend their final days at home amongst their loved ones by bringing the services and equipment available at the hospital to the patient's home free of charge.

To the care-giver, the programme also provides training to the primary caretaker and to family members of each respective family, to take adequate care of the patient at home.

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Express bus operators object to rental hike at terminals

Posted: 28 Dec 2013 09:23 AM PST

by Mariah Doksil. Posted on December 29, 2013, Sunday

KOTA KINABALU: All members of the Sabah Express Bus Operators Council (SEBOC) are strongly against the move by government, through DBKK Holding Sdn. Bhd., to increase the counter rental at terminals around the city centre starting January 1, 2014.

Any increase will be reflected in the express bus fares, which will burden the passengers, said its president, Datuk Donald Hanapi.

He said the 20 percent ihike s too high and will burden the express bus operators.

"It is too much for us to pay 20 percent more for the counter rental when we are also facing price increases for spare parts and diesel fuel.

"We appeal to DBKK Holdings to reconsider their move and, if possible, to reduce the increase to a reasonable amount that is agreeable by all express operators," he told The Borneo Post yesterday.

Donald explained that counter rentals have been increased from RM500 to RM700, while departure fees were increased from RM10 to RM15. DBKK Holding Sdn. Bhd. issued its circular on November 25, 2013.

"I was informed that the outcome of our recent discussion with DBKK Holding will be announced by next week, and I am hoping the increase will be reduced to a smaller quantum as we are also facing an increase in electrical bills.

"We are hoping for a reasonable announcement from DBKK Holding before the operators proceed with their plan to demonstrate against the move," he added.

Donald also said that the council had appeal to the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board (CVLB) to increase the bus fare by 30 per cent to cover their expenses should DBKK Holding proceed with the 20 percent hike and the increase in spare parts, electric tariff and diesel prices.

However, Donald has assured that there will be no increase in the express bus fare as long as CVLB does not give their green light.

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AMG finalising plans to open Sandakan Bird’s Nest Park

Posted: 28 Dec 2013 09:22 AM PST

by Rebecca Chong. Posted on December 29, 2013, Sunday

SANDAKAN: AMG International are in final discussions with a Chinese conglomerate partner to invest USD50 million (about RM160 million) to create Sandakan Bird's Nest Economy Park (Sandakan Eco Park), which will be the world's biggest managed agricultural centre.

Known as a fully integrated swiftlet farming investment management company, AMG International has been working closely with Sabah Swiftlet's Nest Industry Association (SABA) since 2011 and currently owns 100 swiftlet farm houses in Sabah.

According to the Founder and Executive Chairman of AMG International, Woo Tiam Onn, the planned Sandakan Eco Park will be combined with integrated swiftlet house management, high tech processing facilities, state-of-the-art biotech R&D facilities, the Sandakan Government Regulated Inspection family and a series of leisure outlets such as a bird's nest restaurant and exhibition tour centre.

AMG is targeting 3,000 farm units in accordance with the 10th Malaysia Plan to increase bird's nest shipments to 30 per cent of world supply.

Woo, who made the announcement in his speech at the AMG Harvest Event which took place at Four Points Sheraton Hotel here yesterday, also said that AMG is planning to build another 200 houses with partners from China and Taiwan.

"This will be one of the most significant milestones for Sabah and Sandakan government," he added.

Woo later shared the success of the AMG swiftlet project by announcing that a total of 5 tons of swiflet's nest produced in Sandakan houses have been exported to China to date.

Meanwhile, SABA Chairman Datu Faisal Datu Bachtiyal, who is no stranger to Hong Kong, Singapore and China's large-scale companies, said that SABA received increasing interest and demand from the China market on the swiftlet industry in the state.

He pointed out that with supportive government policies, business partners from Hong Kong, China and Singapore are poised to develop superb quality bird's nest to meet the growing demand.

"By providing products with excellent quality, we can prove to the consumers that we are reliable, thus making Sabah's bird's nest known for its quality, especially in China," he added.

Out of the four South East Asia bird's nest supply countries, namely Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, only Malaysia is classified as a 'non bird-flu' region.

During the event, AMG also launched their AMG brand of bird's nest products, Shanhaiyan, which is produced by local bird's nest and will be marketed to China.

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Firm denies role in mangrove clearing

Posted: 28 Dec 2013 09:21 AM PST

KOTA KINABALU: Sunlight Inno Seafood Sdn Bhd yesterday refuted recent reports by a local daily that it was involved in the clear felling of 4,000 acres of pristine mangrove forest in Sungai Eloi, Pitas.

The company said in a statement that it has not and will not be doing any work at Kampung Sungai Eloi, a tributary to the main river, Sungai Telaga, which flows out to sea, contrary to what has been claimed.

"We also wish to point out that we have allocated ample spaces as riparian reserve with a minimum of 20 metres," the statement read.

The statement disclosed that Sunlight Inno Seafood Sdn Bhd, a joint venture entity between a private company and a subsidiary of a state agency, had embarked on a noble shrimp farming project to develop a piece of state land that has been earmarked for aquaculture development since 1983.

According to it, through the development of this project, infrastructure in the area is being upgraded with 3,800 jobs being created and that the spillover will further develop Pitas as a whole.

It also aims to boost economic activity in the district, often described as one of the poorest in the country, through the Economic Transformation Programme which is managed by the Prime Minister's Department Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu).

It added that the company sees this shrimp farming project as a catalyst to spearhead economic development for this deprived district due to its limited infrastructure.

The project is also tagged as one of the National Key Economic Areas which focuses on high impact developments to hasten the aspiration of becoming a high income nation by the year 2020 and a 3-year deadline has been set for the company to 'get things up and running'.

"A lot of preliminary discussions have been conducted to kick off the project and among others approvals from the relevant agencies have been obtained for the company to enter and develop the plot of land situated about 15km from Pitas town. The district Land Utilisation Committee has also approved the project.

"In our pursuit of our dateline, the company appointed EIA consultants at the end of 2012 and promptly submitted the Term of Reference to EPD for approval, which was given on July 10 2013.

"We have also stopped work to build an access route into the area, mostly infrastructure work as well as clearing a certain portion in Kampung Kuyuh and are now trying to resolve the matter for the sake of the project which we feel is an integral part of the national transformation agenda," the statement read.

Following the stop work order Sunlight Inno Seafood Sdn Bhd said it had conveyed the message to the hundreds of villagers who are employed in various capacities within the company and they have expressed their disappointment and concern because most of them were excited with the much-needed development in their area.

During a gathering with about 300 of the villagers and community leaders, Kampung Datong Village Security and Development Committee chairman Maldam Abdul, a native Suluk, said that after surviving from hand to mouth all these years, they were finally looking forward to building better lives for their families.

"When the company came to us, we told them we too wanted to make sure this project benefited all of us, we had asked for employment, road access, clean water supply and other amenities to come with the development. Now that this project has been stopped, we are worried," Maldam said.

Kampung Kuyuh Village Head Ishak Gadian also said he was deeply concerned because the project had much promise for the people of his village and that of other communities in the vicinity.

"Many of our young people are now working at places outside of Pitas such as Kota Kinabalu and Semenanjung because there is nothing for them to do here except for a bit of subsistence farming, rubber tapping and some fishing or collecting molluscs," he said.

"If we have this prawn farm here, there will surely be work for them to do," said Ishak, who said most people in Kampung Kuyuh are of the Orang Sungai and Tombonuo ethnic group.

"In the short period the company was here we can see the gravel road has improved and many of our people had work to do at the project site. They have also promised us clean water supply here where all these years we depended on rainwater and water-wells," Ishak added.

To explain further on the locality of the project, it sits within state land which had been logged before. The project involves Kampung Kuyuh and Kampung Datong, Kampung Manggis and Kampung Telaga excluding Kampung Eloi, contrary to has what has been claimed.

The majority of the villagers are enthusiastic with the development, though there are a few dissenting voices from villagers who do not come from where the development work is taking place.

On sightings of Proboscis monkeys in the area, if there are any, the company would gladly seek the advice of the Sabah Wildlife Department on how they can assist to better protect the species.

This shrimp farming will benefit the people of Pitas district area as whole and also all Sabah people. The project also supports the Federal and State Government aspirations for poverty eradication and achieving high income status by 2020.

The local villagers are in dire need of this project and are pleading with the Government to put the "People First, Performance Now", which is in line with the National Slogan endorsed by the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

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PKR Sabah targeting treble membership jump in a year

Posted: 28 Dec 2013 09:19 AM PST

by Murib Morpi. Posted on December 29, 2013, Sunday

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sabah believes it can increase its membership in the State by almost three-fold in just one year from now.

Its chief, Datuk Seri Panglima Lajim Ukin said he was confident PKR would have at least 200,000 members by the end of next year.

He noted that over 5,000 new members registered with the party in the past few months since he officially took over the helm of the party's state leadership.

He said PKR Sabah has over 87,000 members statewide currently.

He was met after launching a one-day seminar entitled "Empowering PKR Election Machinery held at the party's headquarters in Kepayan Point here yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Klias assemblyman rubbished Barisan Nasional's (BN) claims that a second wave of resignation will happen soon, involving more opposition leaders, including from PKR.

According to Lajim, he had met with all state PKR leaders and they all had pledged their commitment and loyalty to the party's struggle to bring about political changes to the people of Sabah.

"They all want to ensure victory will be ours this time around and BN be pushed out from the government," he said.

On the seminar, he said over 100 leaders and members from all PKR wings across Sabah attended the event, which was aimed at exposing especially election machinery committee members to regulation and issues related to election processes.

He added that the seminar was to educate the members on vital knowledge to allow them play their role more effectively towards ensuring victory for PKR in the next general elections.

"This is also part of our efforts to strengthen our strategy making process, to better prepare ourselves for elections.

"In the last election, many of the machinery were lacking in understanding of the election process such as what can be objected and how they should make their objections in accordance with the laws governing the election process.

"This, among other things, contributed to our poor performance in the elections against BN. So, we are addressing this and hopefully we will be much stronger in the next round," he said.

Five working papers were presented at the seminar, covering election strategy, women development and involvement in politics and overview of the 13th General Elections.

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