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Hundreds of pupils and their parents in Sabah's Telupid district, some 200km from here, were shocked and disappointed to find no proper classrooms available on the first day of school. Some 800 pupils of SK Pekan Telupid had been studying in makeshift classrooms housed under canopies since the roof of a school building block collapsed following a thunderstorm and strong winds in June last year. A father, Dadie Ismail, said that he found it disappointing that the damaged school block has not been repaired despite the school holidays the past month. "I thought the repair works would be carried out during the past school break but now, we came back to find that our children still have to go to class under the canopies," he said. He said what made it worse was that it rained heavil...

The Housing and Local Government Ministry backs the proposal by senior vice-chairman of the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF), Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, that vandals be subjected to fines and community service. Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said she also mentioned the matter in a statement a few months ago The important thing is vandals and littering offenders are meted out deterrent punishment so that they do not repeat the offence. “The ministry values public opinion in improving services and ensuring that efforts to create a sustainable community and generation are achieved, in order to develop a holistic community,” she said in a statement Tuesday (Jan 1). Lee reportedly suggested that the government impose community penalties on those who commit vandalism to cause s...

Public complaints against those who abuse the rule of law are legitimate and do not breach any law, and neither should they be construed as sedition, says the Prime Minister. “(These complaints) will not be considered as sedition in any way. They will be regarded as free speech,” said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad “Citizens can make reports on these matters or openly speak about them. “From the Rulers to the Prime Minister and Ministers, to civil servants and ordinary citizens – the rule of law applies to everyone,” he added. Writing on his blog Chedet on Tuesday (Jan 2), Dr Mahathir said the basic law of Malaysia is the Federal Constitution. “It is a comprehensive body of laws which determines the legal structure of Malaysia from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to the Rulers of the sta...

Indonesian rescue teams were searching for victims of a series of landslides that killed at least 15 people on New Year's Day, officials said, after a year of natural disasters killed thousands. At least 20 people were missing after landslides during heavy rain buried 30 houses in Sukabumi regency, West Java. "Loose soil is a danger to rescue teams that are working in the field," said disaster mitigation agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. Heavy rain had forced rescuers to suspend the search on Tuesday. Indonesia is a disaster-prone archipelago that in 2018 suffered its deadliest year in over a decade in a series of earthquakes and tsunamis in different regions killed more than 3,000 people.

CIMB Bank Berhad has refuted allegations that there was a security flaw in its online banking portal. CIMB said its online banking portal, CIMBClicks, remains secure and all customers' transactions continue to be protected. "The bank would like to inform that it had, over the weekend, introduced a few additional measures to enhance the security of its CIMBClicks transactions. "Apart from ensuring that the system is now able to accommodate passwords longer than eight characters and up to 20 characters, we have also added the reCaptcha security measure on CIMBClicks to ensure the user is not a bot," it said in a statement on Monday (Dec 17). Over the weekend, purported issues with CIMB's online banking portal went viral after social media users claimed that funds from their onlin...

Theresa May has survived an attempt to oust her from the British prime ministership, winning a secret ballot of her MPs 200 to 117. However, her critics immediately demanded she stand down, declaring her victory too narrow to maintain her authority. "A significant number of colleagues did cast a vote against me and I've listened to what they said," said British Prime Minister Theresa May after winning a secret ballot 200 to 117. The result, anounced by Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 backbench committee at 9pm local time, is one vote higher than the votes May received in the second round of the leadership contest she eventually won unchallenged in 2016, But it means that more than a third of her partyroom opposes her leadership. Crucially, the number of MPs who voted...

KUALA LUMPUR: The disappearance of three people have left their mothers at their wits end. Housewife Ng Kim Hong, 38, said her 17-year-old daughter Siew Kai Leng went missing after going out with a friend named Ah Hong on Aug 31, 2017. "Ah Hong promised to bring my daughter home at 10.30pm, but she never came back. He later claimed that my daughter was taken away by another man after having dinner in Kepong," she said at a press conference organised by MCA public services and complaints department chief Datuk Seri Michael Chong. "We have put my daughter's photo and information on Facebook and asked people to look for her. But after more than a year, we still cannot find her," the mother of five from Rawang said. However, she claimed the police report shown by Ah Hong did not in...

Those Vietnam fans who think that the comfortable 2-0 win over Malaysia in the group stage of the 2018 AFF Cup means that the two-legged final against the same opposition will yield a similar result should be careful. Malaysia lost the opening game of the 2010 tournament 5-1 to Indonesia yet beat the same opposition 4-2 on aggregate to lift the trophy for the first, and to date only, time. There are always warnings to be found in history. This week, with the first leg in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday and the second in Hanoi on Saturday, is about history. It is about the chance for two passionate football nations to rule Southeast Asia for a second time and for two sets of players to put themselves into the history books. The two coaches certainly can. Vietnam coach Park Hang-seo can ...