STORY TO BE TOLD

New superbugs spreading from South Asia: study

PARIS (AFP) – Plastic surgery patients have carried a new class of superbugs resistant to almost all antibiotics from South Asia to Britain and they could spread worldwide, researchers reported Wednesday.

Many hospital infections that were already difficult to treat have become even more impervious to drugs thanks to a recently discovered gene that can jump across different species of bacteria.

This so-called NDM-1 gene was first identified last year by Cardiff University's Timothy Walsh in two types of bacteria -- Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli -- in a Swedish patient admitted to hospital in India.

Worryingly, the new NDM-1 bacteria are resistant even to carbapenems, a group of antibiotics often reserved as a last resort for emergency treatment for multi-drug resistant bugs.

In the new study, led by Walsh and Madras University's Karthikeyan Kumarasamy, researchers set out to determine how common the NDM-1 producing bacteria were in South Asia and Britain, where several cases had turned up.

Checking hospital patients with suspect symptoms, they found 44 cases -- 1.5 percent of those screened -- in Chennai, and 26 (eight percent) in Haryana, both in India.

They likewise found the superbug in Bangladesh and Pakistan, as well 37 cases in Britain, where several patients had recently travelled to India or Pakistan for cosmetic surgery.

"India also provides cosmetic surgery for other Europeans and Americans, and it is likely that NDM-1 will spread worldwide," said the study, published in the British medical journal The Lancet.

NDM-1 was mostly found in E. coli, a common source of community-acquired urinary tract infections, and K. pneumoniae, and was impervious to all antibiotics except two, tigecycline and colistin.

In some cases, even these drugs did not beat back the infection.

Crucially, the NDM-1 gene was found on DNA structures, called plasmids, that can be easily copied and transferred between bacteria, giving the bug "an alarming potential to spread and diversify," the authors said.

"Unprecedented air travel and migration allow bacterial plasmids and clones to be transported rapidly between countries and continents," mostly undetected, they said.

The emergence of these new drug-resistant strains could become a serious global public health problem as the major threat shifts toward a broad class of bacteria -- including those armed with the NDM-1 gene -- known as "Gram-negative", the researchers warn.

"There are few new anti-Gram-negative antibiotics in development, and none that are effective against NDM-1," the study said.

NDM-1 stands for New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1.

Johann Pitout from the University of Calgary in Canada said patients who have medical procedures in India should be screened for multi-resistant bacteria before they receive care in their home country.

Credits to and source taken: http://news.yahoo.com/

Satok Market

Visitors should not miss Pasar Satok as the busy market offers views of diverse cultures, a cacophony of unfamiliar languages (especially for those familiar with standard Malay and English) and an assortment of products"

The Satok Weekend Market on Jalan Satok starts on Saturday afternoon when traders bring produce from their farms and continues on till Sunday. There are also many unique ferns and plants, wild honey, wild orchids, traditional herbs (used as medicine) and fruits from the jungles. Handicrafts and ethnic carvings are also available. There are a wide variety of snacks and sometimes snakes in baskets!

By Bus It is a short drive from the main hotel area in Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman. Try the taxi or take the hourly Kuching City Tram that leaves the bus stop in front of the Hilton and Crown Plaza Hotels.

Do read more on: http://www.virtualmalaysia.com/

Credits to and source taken from: http://www.virtualmalaysia.com/

Stutong Ramadan Bazaar....Kuching

Malaysia-Ramadan Bazaar.

Malaysian Muslim celebrate Ramadan, towns and cities throughout Malaysia hold a Ramadan Bazaar. Each bazaar has its own distinctive flavour that comes to life after dusk with a series of stalls and vendors pedaling their wares. They are a great place for visitors to sample traditional Malay cuisine which is freshly prepared and cooked on open coals while you wait.
source: http://uncleawangcapture.blogspot.com/


Kota Samarahan Remadan Bazaar-Desa Ilmu Commercial centre


source: http://uncleawangcapture.blogspot.com/


Comes Ramadan Malaysians are spoilt for choice when it comes to food no matter they are Muslim or non-Muslim. In Ramadan there are plenty of temporary stalls selling food at the place gazetted by the local council for the whole month of Ramadan. Malaysians will flock the market normally after coming back from work and it spares them the hassle of cooking their meal for breaking of fast especially for both working parents

Just see for yourself how colourful and busy the market is.
source: http://uncleawangcapture.blogspot.com/


More on: http://uncleawangcapture.blogspot.com/

Credits to and special thank you to and source taken from: http://uncleawangcapture.blogspot.com/

Upload limit increases to 15 minutes for all users

We want YouTube to be the best place to upload video. Without question, the number one requested feature by our creators is to upload videos longer than 10 minutes. We’ve heard you, and today we’re pleased to announce that we’ve increased the upload limit to 15 minutes.

We encourage you to take full advantage of this new time limit by making a video of your “15 minutes of fame.” Imagine that this video is all the world will ever know about you: what would you want to communicate? What will be the enduring stamp you’ve left on us all? Tag your video with “yt15minutes,” upload it by Wednesday, August 4, and we’ll select a handful of people to truly gain their 15 minutes of fame by featuring them on the YouTube homepage in a future spotlight.

In the meantime, you may wonder “why now?” -- the upload limit for non-partners has been 10 minutes for years. Well, we’ve spent significant resources on creating and improving our state-of-the-art Content ID system and many other powerful tools for copyright owners. Now, all of the major U.S. movie studios, music labels and over 1,000 other global partners use Content ID to manage their content on YouTube. Because of the success of these ongoing technological efforts, we are able to increase the upload limit today. We will continue our strong commitment to provide advanced technology and tools to protect the rights of small and large copyright owners worldwide. We’ll also do everything we can to release incremental improvements like this one that benefit our video creators.

One final note: if you’re uploading a video that was previously rejected for being too long, you’ll have to go into “My Videos” and delete it before attempting to upload it again. Thanks and happy uploading!

Credits to and source taken from: http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much YOU TUBE!

AirAsia tickets sell like hot cakes

PETALING JAYA: Over half a million AirAsia tickets were snapped up within a day when the airline’s “Mind Blowing Fare” promotion of RM1 per seat started on Tuesday.

AirAsia also recorded its highest number of sales in an hour, selling 36,871 seats, which is a 47.5% increase from the previous record of 25,000.

The campaign offers flights to selected domestic and Asean desti­nations at RM1, including Alor Setar, Johor Baru, Langkawi, Penang, Singapore, Bandung (Indo­­­nesia), Phnom Penh (Cam­bodia) and Krabi and Phuket in Thailand.

The RM1 fare is applicable for one-way travel only and does not include taxes.

AirAsia group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes said the low-cost airline credited a newly implemented system for expanding its booking capacity.

“With the new booking system New Skies, AirAsia can now accept up to almost one million flight bookings a day,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Booking for the RM1 air fare campaign is open until Aug 15, 2010 and is valid only for travelling next year between April 1 and Aug 11.

When asked about the return ticket price, AirAsia communications executive Daphne Cheah said “our fares are based on a tier system.”

“We (AirAsia) might say return fares are from RM50, but if it’s all snapped up and people can’t find it, we would be branded liars.

“We try not to put return fares as it may mislead people,” she said, adding that AirAsia kept to its practice of displaying one-way fares.

Credits to and source taken from: http://thestar.com.my/

Dad comes home to horror find

GEORGE TOWN: A father was horrified to find his 13-year-old son dead at home in a pool of blood with his throat slit.

The man, identified only as Ramesh, 37, found his son R. Surendran in one of the bedrooms at their home in Taman Seri Relau with a cloth around his neck and his shorts pulled down to the knees.

Ramesh had returned home at 1.30pm yesterday to check on him after his daughter informed him that Surendran had played truant from school.

“I felt uneasy when I found that the wooden and grill doors of the house ajar. I never expected to find him in such a state,” he said.

Devastated: Ramesh sobbing uncontrollably upon learning the death of his son Surendran (inset).

Penang Deputy CID chief Supt Mat Nasir Hussein said they suspected the boy knew his assailant as there were no signs of forced entry into the home.

Nothing had been stolen from the house.

Police have detained a 16-year-old boy to facilitate investigations.

“The suspect was a close friend of Surendran. They studied at the same secondary school in Jalan Tengah, Bayan Baru,” he said.

It is learnt police had recovered a blood-soaked T-shirt belonging to the suspect, a Form Four pupil, from a rubbish bin in Bayan Lepas.

Police have classified the case as murder and are looking for the murder weapon.

Investigations are on-going to verify the motive.

Initial police investigation showed that Surendran was killed between 7am and 10am yesterday.

Ramesh said the neighbour called the police after he shouted for help after the gruesome find.

A neighbour, who declined to be identified, told police that she noticed the door to the house was open at about 10am.

Credits to and source taken from: http://thestar.com.my

Paris Hilton sued for $35M for wearing wrong hair

LOS ANGELES (AP): Paris Hilton was sued Wednesday for allegedly wearing someone else's hair.

A company that manufactures hair extensions claimed the 29-year-old socialite breached her contract to wear and promote their product when she sported the fake locks of a competitor in 2008.

Hairtech International Inc. is seeking $35 million in damages - 10 times what she was apparently paid under the contract. The fraud and breach-of-contract suit cites the heiress' partying as contrary to Hairtech's marketing campaign.

The filing also claims Hilton missed a launch party for the hair extension line because she was serving a stint in jail in 2007. Hilton served 23 days in 2007 after she was caught driving twice on a suspended license while on probation for reckless driving.

The filing states the company's lost $6.6 million on the launch party alone, although a jury or judge will have to decide whether Hilton owes any money if the case goes to trial.

Phone and e-mail messages to Hilton's publicist Dawn Miller were not immediately returned Wednesday.

The case isn't the first time Hilton's role as a pitchwoman has gotten her sued.

The producers of the film "Pledge This!" sued Hilton in 2008 in federal court in Miami, claiming she didn't properly promote the film. A judge ruled last year that she didn't owe the roughly $8.3 million it cost to the make the film, which played in fewer than two dozen theaters.

The court is still deciding how much, if any, of Hilton's $1 million fee for "Pledge This!" she may have to return to filmmakers.

Credits to and source taken from: http://ecentral.my/

Doing his bit: Gelber (centre, in cap) and his team after a tree-planting session. The World’s Greenest Man in 2008 lives with very little air conditioning. — Bernama

Not too hot for greenest man

KUALA LUMPUR: It may be hard for most people to imagine but Mat­thias Gelber – the so-called World’s Greenest Man in 2008 – lives with very little air conditioning and electricity, even in a country as hot as Ma­­laysia.

Gelber, who does not even own a car, said he would often leave the windows open in his condominium in Malaysia to keep cool.

“My condominium here is very healthy. I open my windows to let the air flow through my unit. Of course, the rain can pose a hazard occasionally, but that doesn’t trouble me too much,” he said.

Gelber, 41, who was awarded the title by a mobile solutions company in Canada for his environmental work, was originally from Lippe, Germany, which has a population of only 300.

“I have been ‘green’ since my childhood days growing up on a farm in Germany. We planted our own potatoes, fruits and vegetables,” said the expert on environmental management.

Gelber said the simplest way for Malaysians to change into a “green” lifestyle was to be conscious of what they did daily.

“The system which measures our utility bills each month can be likened to the micro-carbon emission meter. We can create awareness towards one’s electricity consumption both at home and in the office.

“Next, we can cultivate discipline in controlling and influencing the use of ‘less green’ things in daily living,” he said.

He said currently, each Malaysian emitted seven tonnes of carbon dioxide but warned that this could change with more development.

“Growth rate is rising and so is the meter reading on per capita carbon emission in Malaysia. Although Malaysia is still not a fully developed country, the gap is definitely getting smaller now,” he said, adding that deforestation was also becoming a problem.

However, Gelber said Malaysia was lucky as the country had lots of peat swamp land or forests.

“These forests suck up a lot of carbon, up to 10 times more than the normal forests. By investing in efforts to protect these lands with new plants and replanting of trees, the people will positively contribute to the conservation of the environment,” he said. — Bernama

Credits to and source taken from: http://thestar.com.my/

Caca tenang sejak bertudung

JAKARTA: Bagi peminat Marshanda, mereka mungkin tidak lagi dapat melihat rambut hitam, lurus dan panjang milik pelakon itu selepas dia berazam bertudung selama-lamanya.
Menceritakan pengalamannya, Marshanda, 21, berkata, dia sering mengikuti pengajian agama di Yayasan Darul Aitam di Jakarta Selatan.

Semakin memahami Islam, katanya, dia tidak hanya mahu menguasai teori, sebaliknya berazam mempraktikkannya.

“Saya mula bertudung pada 12 Jun lalu.

“Pada mulanya saya mendalami pengajian hadis dan lama-kelamaan, saya berasa sebenarnya saya disayangi Tuhan.

“Akhirnya saya memutuskan untuk mengenakan tudung,” katanya, semalam.

Dengan keputusan nekadnya itu, Marshanda - atau lebih mesra dipanggil Caca - berkata, dia berasa lebih tenang dan hampir dengan Tuhan.

“Kini saya mahu lebih dekat dengan Dia dan saya kini menjadi lebih tenang,” katanya. Mula beraksi di depan kamera sebagai model iklan ketika di sekolah rendah, Marshanda membintangi beberapa sinetron, termasuk Bidadari dan Puteri Yang Terbuang. - Agensi

Credits to and source taken from: http://www.hmetro.com.my/
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