The capital of Penang was shaken by the roar of motorcycle engines, when some 300 youths held a protest convoy. But Lim Guan Eng's aide believes the bikes were running on Umno fuel. GEORGE TOWN: Another demonstration marred the state legislative assembly session when some 300 youths on motorcycles held a convoy. The Mat Rempits demanded that the state government builds a race track for them. The two-kilometre convoy was from Komtar, which houses state government offices, to the State Legislative Assembly House in Lebuh Light. The Mat Rempits, claiming to be members of the unregistered Pertubuhan Islam Gabungan Amal (PER3), gathered at the Komtar ground floor around noon before kickstarting their convoy to the House via Penang Road and Chulia Street. Ironically, they were escorted by police patrol cars and traffic policemen on motorbikes throughout the journey. Many of the Mat Rempits were spotted wearing yellow t-shirts with an anti-Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng slogan, which read: ...

Saya mendapat komen yang panjang lebar dari sahabat blog saya, Encik Walla. Oleh kerana saya inginkan memanafaat fikiran bernas yang ada dalam komen tersebut untuk di kongsi oleh seramai mungkin pembaca, maka saya menterjemahkan komen tersebut kedalam bahasa Melayu. Mudah mudahan, selaras dengan saranan dan pegangan MP Pagoh, ianya memperkasakan bahasa Melayu. Begini bunyi nya komen Walla. Pendedahan yang memualkan oleh lapuran ketua odit negara( LKON) membatalkan semua rasa gembira dari bajet 2012. Malahan, pendedahan tersebut telah mengukuhkan lagi persepsi bahawa kerajaan yang di pimpin oleh UMNO secara sistematik membohong dan menipu rakyat setiap tahun hanya untuk memperkayakan imam2 perang UMNO dan Napoleon2 kecil. Pengundi2 simpanan tetap- penjawat awam, guru, bekas tentera dan polis serta petani yang akan mendapat faedah dari bajet 2012, menikmati itu semua diatas penghukuman yang di kenakan keatas sektor swasta dan akan memudaratkan aliran tunai masa depan negara ini. Sem...

KOTA KINABALU, Oct 31 — A Sabah Railways train and a road fuel tanker collided this evening, causing a huge explosion at Jalan Kepayan-Jalan Lintas junction near the Kota Kinabalu international airport here. Police have yet to determine the number of casualties. Fire and rescue services have been deployed to the scene of the crash, and traffic flow along both roads have been brought to a near halt. MORE TO COME The Malaysian Insider :: Malaysia

Er Teck Hwa, Lim Lip Eng and N Gobalakrishnan defied the Speaker's order to sit down. KUALA LUMPUR: Three MPs were kicked out of parliament house for disobeying the Speaker's order to sit down. Bakri MP Er Teck Hwa was told to get out when he remained standing and continued to demand an answer to a question he posed to the Minister of International Trade and Industry, Mustapa Mohamed, who finished his winding up speech without responding to the former. Er wanted clarification on a piece of information alleging that Malaysia was interested in trading with Israel. Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia repeatedly asked him to sit down, but he was defiant. "Why didn't the minister answer?" he said. "It's just a yes or no. I just want to know if Malaysia has economic ties with Israel" Pandikar Amin eventually ordered Er out after several failed attempts to get him to sit down. Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng told Er not to leave. A clearly livid Pandikar then showed the do...

Noh said the project had reached its stated target using Putrajaya's yardstick. — File pic KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — The government defended today the RM73.64 million National Feedlot Centre (NFC) project, insisting that the cattle farming scheme met its target of producing 8,000 heads of cattle by 2010. Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Datuk Seri Noh Omar told Parliament today that the ministry has already given its feedback to the Auditor-General over the NFC that was included in the 2010 report. Reading from the report, the Tanjong Karang MP said "the total number of cattle brought into the farm was 8,016 between 2008 and 2010." "Of that total, 5,742 were slaughtered up to November 2010. Therefore, the target of 8,000 cattle by 2010 was met. It is a success," he said. The 2010 Auditor General's report said the project — linked to minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil's family — to create Malaysia's "Beef Valley" had...

October 31, 2011 A Sister's Eulogy for Steve Jobs By Mona Simpson (10-30-11)* I grew up as an only child, with a single mother. Because we were poor and because I knew my father had emigrated from Syria, I imagined he looked like Omar Sharif. I hoped he would be rich and kind and would come into our lives (and our not yet furnished apartment) and help us. Later, after I'd met my father, I tried to believe he'd changed his number and left no forwarding address because he was an idealistic revolutionary, plotting a new world for the Arab people. Even as a feminist, my whole life I'd been waiting for a man to love, who could love me. For decades, I'd thought that man would be my father. When I was 25, I met that man and he was my brother. By then, I lived in New York, where I was trying to write my first novel. I had a job at a small magazine in an office the size of a closet, with three other aspiring writers. When one day a lawyer called me — me, the middle-c...

International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed is also forced to defend himself from the accusation that he is a 'Lynas mouthpiece'. KUALA LUMPUR: The government has rejected Lynas Corporation Ltd's submissions on safety requirements for its controversial RM1.5 billion rare earth refinery in Gebeng last month. The revelation came amid a report today by the Australian Associated Press that the Australian mining giant is expected to begin commercially supplying radiation-risk rare earth by 2012. The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) told Parliament today that Lynas had given the submissions on July 18. This was two weeks after Putrajaya adopted the 11 recommendations set out by an International Atomic Energy Agency-led (IAEA) review of the refinery. "But we returned all documents for corrections and additional information on Sept 19," deputy minister Fadillah Yusof said during MOSTI's winding up of the 2012 Budget debate. The gove...

by Richard Loh A primary one student can also claim easily that he can deliver. In fact all salesmen, businessmen and any Tom Dick and Harry can promised and said "I can deliver". I was disconnected from the virtual and outside world for almost a month and have no idea what the local political scenes have turned into. While eating the bungkus nasi lemak I read from the wrapped star paper headlines "I can deliver – Najib Razak". Today after getting connected again and having read most of the political news, I wonder what the PM meant by "I can deliver". By just giving a salesman type of answer "I can deliver" means nothing if the whole system of manufacturing the product is not working in sync. Way back in the late 90′s when I was in the US, I applied for a delivery job in a restaurant. The boss asked me one question 'can you deliver?' and of course my answer was 'I can deliver'. He started laughing and told me that he had fir...

OCT 31 — It seems that there are still interest groups in Malaysia that like to label their opponents with the intention of casting them in a bad light with the general population. Our own Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was once labelled a "Malay Ultra" early on in his political career by his detractors. He had to work hard during his time in government to shake off this label. It continues today with the various political parties being pigeonholed by their opponents. Umno is said to be racist, the MCA is cast as the party of the well-to-do Chinese towkays and the MIC as a party controlled by thugs. On the opposition side, PAS is cast as a theocracy that wants hudud, the DAP as a chauvinistic Chinese party and PKR as a party of Umno has-beens who would desert the opposition if the price was right. If the above labels are all accurate, then Malaysia is truly a lost cause. My own experience and belief is that none of the above parties are all that they are made out to be by their d...

Syed Hamid speaks to the press after distributing flyers on Klang Bus Stand's permanent closure, in Kuala Lumpur October 31, 2011. — Picture by Yow Hong Chieh KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — Demolition of the Klang Bus Stand will begin by year's end to make way for the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (KVMRT) interchange with the LRT, the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) said today. Demolition is expected to be completed by early next year, after which work on the Pasar Seni KVMRT station will begin. Buses here servicing Klang and Banting, including Rapid KL U91, will be moved to Pudu Sentral while all other Rapid KL buses will continue to pick up fares from Jalan Sultan Mohamed just outside Klang Bus Stand. Some 5,000 passengers who use the bus stand daily will be affected by the move. A commercial development and a new bus stand will be built on the same spot when the KVMRT is completed in 2016. SPAD chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar said the Klang Bus Stand, built in 197...

"Nambikei" is a word now frequently used by Prime Minister Datuk Sri najib Tun Razak. Najib first used nambikei at the 65 th MIC General Assembly in August. Literally, nambikei means believe, trust, confidence and hope. After 54 years under Barisan Nasional – UMNO hegemony, Najib wants Indians to continue to place their nambikei in Najib and Barisan Nasional. Nambikei as the the rallying call of Najib has become important because in the 2008 General Election, Indians for once had the gumption and the cojonnes to abandon Barisan Nasional. For once, Indians braved and cut their umbilical cord with MIC. With almost 850,000 Indian voters, 70 % of them living and voting in 50 parliamentary constituencies where Indians form as much as 20% of the voters, nambikei takes a greater importance not only for Najib but importantly for the survival of Barisan Nasional. From the regular stage managed appearances at Indian events, to the cheerful announcement by Najib that he loves thos...

by Jim Forsyth Reuters Sun, Oct 30 2011 SAN ANTONIO, Tex (Reuters) — The seven-billionth human is expected to be born on Monday, but an expert who helps do the counting says that event comes as the Earth undergoes a demographic shift toward slower population growth. According to the United Nations Population Fund, the seven-billionth child is most likely to be a boy born in India or China, but the trend of fertility in the longer term is in a different direction, says Dudley Poston, a professor of sociology and demographics at Texas A&M University, For the first time ever, the human reproduction rate is slowing, in many places slowing significantly, and the slowing growth is not only happening in Europe and Japan, he says. "Once your fertility rates drops below two, it is very very hard to get it to go back up again," Poston told Reuters. "We now have 75 countries in the world where the fertility rate is below two," meaning the average woman is having fewe...