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THE biggest Chinese Artistes Concert yet, featuring many international and local talents, will be held this year-end at Jalan Sultan Ismail in Kuala Lumpur.

Specially held in conjunction with New Year Countdown 2010, the Street Party Countdown is organised by Sungei Wang Plaza in collaboration with co-organisers Kuala Lumpur Chinese Assembly Hall and MCA National Youth, presenter Hotlink and co-sponsor Nokia, with MY FM as the official radio station and Astro as the official TV channel.

According to Sungei Wang Plaza senior manager (promotions and public relations) K.K. Lim, the Street Party Countdown 2010 will be one of the most exciting concerts to be held since the first street party concert in 2003.

Bosco Wong from Hong Kong, Peter Pan, Stanley Xu and Judy Chow from Taiwan and Chin from Thailand are set to usher in the New Year with their Malaysian fans.

Malaysian Chinese talents: (From left) Rynn Linn, Andrew Tan, Suki Low, Thomas Jack and Chen Keat Yoke will be belting out their hit songs to make the New Year countdown celebration even more entertaining.

Wong, the talented Hong Kong TVB actor, is also well known for his excellent vocals.

Meanwhile, Pan, Xu and Chow are among the top 10 finalists in Taiwan’s TV Reality singing competition, which boasts the highest viewership in the island. They released their first mini album last year and Pan has just released his maiden full album in Asia.

In addition, talented Malaysian Chinese artistes like Rynn Linn, Thomas Jack, Andrew Tan, Chen Keat Yoke and Suki Low will also be belting out their hit songs to add to the merriment.

Entry is free and Sungei Wang Plaza is currently offering 2,000 VIP tickets (Standing Zone) to shoppers who make purchases of RM100 and above in accumulated receipts within the same day, from any shops in the mall, except Parkson and Giant Supermarket.

The VIP tickets can be redeemed at the Information Counter on the Lower Ground Floor of the shopping centre on a first-come-first-served basis.

Lim said more than 50,000 spectators were expected to attend the Street Party Countdown 2010 celebration.

“Previous concerts have attracted almost 80,000 viewers from all ages. This year, we hope more people will come to enjoy the entertainment,” he said.

The celebration will kick off at 6.30pm with various performances, including a Street Diabolo performance and aRoller Skate performance.

The Street Party Concert will commence at 10pm.

Jalan Sultan Ismail, in front of Sungei Wang Plaza, will be closed to public transportation from 12.01am on Dec 31 till 6am on Jan 1, 2010, for the setting and dismantling of the stage.

The public is advised to make the necessary arrangements to avoid traffic congestion on the aforesaid dates.

For more information, call Lim or Wymen Chew of Sungei Wang Plaza’s Promotions and Public Relations Department at 03-2142 6636 during office hours, or the Information Counter at 03-2148 6109 from 10am to 10pm daily or log on to www.sungeiwang.com.

Source: TheStar Online

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TheStar Online (November 27, 2009)

SEREMBAN: Sim Carmen, 12, (pic) loves the outdoors but having the blood disorder thalassemia prevents her from living life fully.

The young girl is in desperate need of RM260,000 for a cord blood transplant.

Carmen’s mother Chin Chui Ling, 42, said her daughter was diagnosed when she was four.

“In the beginning, she did not require frequent blood transfusions, but now, she goes to the hospital for a transfusion every two weeks, sometimes more. Watching her go through the process is heart-breaking but Carmen is brave and rarely complains,” she said.

Housewife Chin and her husband Sim Kim Joo, 54, recently found out that such a transplant was available at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou, Taiwan.

“We have no choice but to go abroad as it may take a year or two before Carmen gets the chance to undergo a similar operation here,” she added. Both Chin and her

husband are thalassemia carriers but Carmen is the only one of their three children who has the disease.

Chin said her salesman husband earned just enough to cover the family’s expenses.

“My oldest son is only 18 but has decided to work to help us with our finances. The 17-year-old is still in school,” she said. The couple approached Lobak assemblyman Anthony Loke Siew Fook for assistance.

Loke said the transplant was estimated to cost RM350,000 but the Sim family had already raised RM90,000.

Thalassemia is a genetic disorder which causes decreased and defective production of hemoglobin, a molecule found inside all red blood cells that transports oxygen throughout the body.

Those who wish to contribute can send their cheques addressed to the Sim Carmen Trust Fund to Loke’s office at 1st Floor, 169, Jalan Tuanku Munawir, 70000 Seremban, or bank in their contributions directly into Alliance Bank account 05017-0-02-974367-5 (Sim Carmen Trust Fund).

For further details, contact Loke at 06-763 4525.

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To all my readers and friends.

Today I received some disturbing news from my friend that her niece has been missing.

I would like to appeal to you to help my friend and her family find her niece, Lee Ru Yi, who was missing from Klang on the 14th July 2009.

They received some information and believe that she has been brought to Penang.

If you can, please pass this message on to your friends and relatives.

If there’s any news, pls contact my friend’s brother, Mr. Lee @ 012-3189399 or Mrs. Lee 016-9797110.

Thanks a lot!

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TheStar Online (June 11, 2009)

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation told its member nations it was declaring a swine flu pandemic Thursday – the first global flu epidemic in 41 years – as infections climbed in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere.

In a statement sent to member countries, WHO said it decided to raise the pandemic warning level from phase 5 to 6 – its highest alert – after holding an emergency meeting on swine flu with its experts.

The long-awaited pandemic decision is scientific confirmation that a new flu virus has emerged and is quickly circling the globe. It will trigger drugmakers to speed up production of a swine flu vaccine and prompt governments to devote more money toward efforts to contain the virus.

“At this early stage, the pandemic can be characterised globally as being moderate in severity,” WHO said in the statement, urging nations not to close borders or restrict travel and trade. “(We) remain in close dialogue with influenza vaccine manufacturers.”

WHO also told countries it was in “close dialogue” with flu vaccine makers and it believed the firms would work “to ensure the largest possible supply of pandemic vaccine in the months to come.”

Flu vaccine makers like GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Sanofi-Aventis have been working since last month on a swine flu vaccine.

GlaxoSmithKline spokesman Stephen Rea said the company was ready to start making swine flu vaccine in large quantities once it finished its regular flu vaccine production in July.

On Wednesday, WHO said 74 countries had reported nearly 27,737 cases of swine flu, including 141 deaths.

The agency has stressed that most cases are mild and require no treatment, but the fear is that a rash of new infections could overwhelm hospitals and health authorities – especially in poorer countries.

Still, about half of the people who have died from swine flu were previously young and healthy – people who are not usually susceptible to flu.

Swine flu is also continuing to spread during the start of summer in the northern hemisphere. Normally, flu viruses disappear with warm weather, but swine flu is proving to be resilient.

The last pandemic – the Hong Kong flu of 1968 – killed about 1 million people. Ordinary flu kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people each year.

Many health experts say WHO’s pandemic declaration could have come weeks earlier but the agency became bogged down by politics. In May, several countries urged WHO not to declare a pandemic, fearing it would cause social and economic turmoil.

“This is WHO finally catching up with the facts,” said Michael Osterholm, a flu expert at the University of Minnesota who has advised the U.S. government on pandemic preparations.

Despite WHO’s hopes, raising the epidemic alert to the highest level will almost certainly spark some panic about spread of swine flu.

Fear has already gripped Argentina, where thousands of people worried about swine flu flooded into hospitals this week, bringing emergency health services in the capital of Buenos Aires to the brink of collapse. Last month, a bus arriving in Argentina from Chile was stoned by people who thought a passenger on it had swine flu. Chile has the most swine flu cases in South America.

In Hong Kong on Thursday, the government ordered all kindergartens and primary schools closed for two weeks after a dozen students tested positive for swine flu – a move that some flu experts would consider an overreaction.

In the United States, where there have been more than 13,000 cases and at least 27 deaths from swine flu, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the move would not change how the U.S. tackled swine flu.

“Our actions in the past month have been as if there was a pandemic in this country,” Glen Nowak, a CDC spokesman, said Thursday.

The U.S. government has already taken steps like increasing availability of flu-fighting medicines and authorising US$1bil for the development of a new vaccine against the novel virus. In addition, new cases seem to be declining in many parts of the country, U.S. health officials say, as North America moves out of its traditional winter flu season.

Still, Osterholm said the declaration was a wake-up call for the world.

“I think a lot of people think we’re done with swine flu, but you can’t fall asleep at the wheel,” he said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen in the next 6 to 12 months.” – AP

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We at the HBA view with interest some housing project advertisements in the newspapers recently. They prominently state 10-90 as the mode of payment and went on to say, “Pay 10% and no payment until vacant possession.”

It would appear as if the mode of payment is similar to the Build-then-sell (BTS) 10-90 that HBA has been lobbying for and for which the Government is offering incentives to developers to adopt the system.

HBA feels that it is incumbent upon us to explain to potential house buyers the differences between the advertised 10-90 and the BTS 10-90 promoted by the Government under the amended Housing Act .

The advertised 10-90 system is actually a loan package deal whereby the buyer pays 10% upon signing the Sales and Purchase Agreement and the balance is progressively paid through the buyer’s housing loans. The loan is progressively disbursed to the developer as he builds the houses.

Hence the “… no payment until vacant possession” is not wholly true because, in actual fact, the buyer’s loan is used to progressively pay the developer. However, the interest payable for the progressive payments during the construction phase is shouldered by the developer.

In the BTS 10-90 system, the buyer pays 10% upon signing the SPA and does not make any more payment until the house is completed, with all the certifications obtained. Only then does the housing loan kick in and the buyer then pays the remaining 90%.

The vital difference between the advertised 10-90 system and the BTS 10-90 is that in the advertised 10-90 system, should the developer abandon the project, the buyer is left with a partially disbursed housing loan to settle.

The primary borrower is still the buyer and it is his sole responsibility to continue with the proper conduct of his loan from the financiers.

Banks have not been known to be sympathetic to victims of abandoned projects and the loans still have to be settled, house or no house. This is the predicament presently faced by tens of thousands of naïve and innocent buyers.

We would like to categorical­ly state that we are by no means implying that the advertised project is likely to be abandoned. This letter is only to inform potential buyers the differences between the advertised 10-90 and the BTS10-90 systems.

CHANG KIM LOONG,

Secretary General,

National House Buyers Association.

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KUALA LUMPUR: The Government has placed all peanut butter products from the United States on Level Five alert following several salmonella-linked deaths there, said Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai.

He said a Level Five alert meant that products would be held back and stringently tested first, and only released if they are found safe for consumption.

“The importer themselves have withdrawn the particular batches of contaminated products from the shelves.

“They have identified which batches are contaminated,” he told reporters after handing out angpows to the Valley of Hope residents here Saturday.

In a statement, the Health Ministry’s Food Safety and Quality Division said that the Ministry was informed that possibly contaminated dough, which uses peanut butter and peanut paste, had been exported to Malaysia, for The Famous Amos Chip Cookie Corp (M) Sdn Bhd.

“Investigations found that the dough had been imported from Peanut Corporation of America, and was used in three sales premises in KLCC, Sungai Wang and at the KL International Airport.

“The company has recalled the dough from all three premises,” the statement said.

Liow added that the Government had “raised the alert to Level Five at all ports just to ensure that the incoming batches are free of salmonella contamination.” Asked if there were any other US products which were placed on Level Five alert, he said, “It’s a very specific product. We are focusing on one product — peanut butter.”

US authorities on Friday said seven people had died from a nationwide outbreak of salmonella associated with tainted peanut butter and paste sourced to the PCA plant in Blakely, Georgia.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified the bacterial strain as Salmonella Typhimurium.

The CDC said there had been 492 cases in 43 states and one Canadian province of people sickened with the strain as of Thursday, US media reports.

Patients ranged in age from one to 98 and 22% of people afflicted with the bacteria have been hospitalised.

Another 10 US firms Friday recalled products which use PCA peanut butter or paste — bringing to roughly 360 the number of products affected — as it emerged that the plant at the centre of the probe laid off most of its roughly 50 workers, US papers said.

The recalled products range from snack bars to crackers and pre-packaged meals and even pet food. But products containing peanuts not sourced from the PCA plant are deemed safe.

The Food and Drug Administration, which is investigating, has said it has no evidence to suggest the contamination originated with any other major manufacturing facility other than the PCA plant.

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Some 45,000 workers in the manufacturing sector may temporarily be out of job soon with most factories in the country to cease operations for the Chinese New Year celebration. Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S.Subramaniam said this would happen because the factories would shut down operations for two or three weeks and the workers were asked to take leave, either on paid or unpaid leave, depending on their respective employers.

He said factories had to shut down and temporarily terminate their workers because of a drop in demand for their products, after opening the Agro Explosion 2009 Seminar & Workshop, here today.

He said that as of Jan 12, 14,000 workers from various sectors lost their jobs because of the world economic slowdown, but that there were some 15,000 job vacancies in various sectors registered at the ministry.

On the protest by the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) and the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) to the government’s plan to have a pension scheme for private sector employees through the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Dr. Subramaniam said it happened due to a misunderstanding.

“Actually, the ministry is thinking about the senior citizens who can no longer work and fend for themselves who have used up their EPF money. We need a system to help this group of people,” he added.

He said the government was studying the scheme and would gather feedback from various quarters before deciding the matter. — BERNAMA (January 18, 2009)

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