Wong files RM150m suit against Sabah govt

Sri Tanjung assemblyman Jimmy Wong alleged that statements
made against him were calculated to make negative
inferences of him and that he is a liar.

KOTA KINABALU: A Sabah state assemblyman has filed a RM150 million suit against the state government and several of its agencies for defamation.

Sri Tanjung assemblyman, Jimmy Wong, named Land and Survey Department director Osman Jamal, the Native Certificate Holders Transfer Committee (NTHTC), State Native Affairs Council, Local Government and Housing Minister and the Sabah state government as the defendants, in that order, in the suit filed yesterday.

Wong, 62, who is also DAP Sabah chief is seeking RM100 million in damages from the first and second defendant and another RM50 million or damages to be assessed by the court as well as punitive damages against all the defendants for unconstitutional actions.

A sympathetic expose by a West Malaysian on Sabah's poverty-stricken folks

I read Dr Hams letter and cannot help but agree with many of his observations. I worked in Sabah for over seven years as a house officer and medical officer. After my housemanship, I was sent to Ranau to serve in the district hospital. What Dr Hams described in Kota Marudu is not something isolated to that district alone in Sabah . It is an often repeated story in the whole of Sabah .

My first introduction to the poverty in Sabah came during my first months there, when a sweet 70- year-old lady from Kota Marudu was sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital with deep jaundice. She lived alone in a small village off Kota Marudu and noticed the jaundice about a month before.

We Can Hit 35 US Bases in 'Minutes'

By LEE FERRAN of ABC News

TEHRAN : An Iranian military commander said that his country has detailed contingency plans to strike nearly three dozen U.S. military bases in the region should Iran be attacked, local media reported Wednesday.

Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force, told reporters the U.S. has 35 bases around Iran and all are "within the reach of our missiles" and could be hit "in the early minutes after an attack," according to an English-language report from Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency. The bases were no threat but instead an "opportunity" for the Iranian military, Hajizadeh said last month, according to Fars.

All must stand up against racist taunts!

By Joe Fernandez
We cannot continue to tolerate a situation where people hurl racist remarks against us and taunt us whenever we want to be heard or give a hearing to others.

Indians in particular must shed the image of being soft targets. They need to speak up so that they can be heard.

Even one ounce of Indian blood, for example, is enough for others to defecate all over us for this reason and no other.

Everyone has Right of Reply, no need to run amok!

By Joe Fernandez

It’s not the done thing for Jeffrey Kitingan’s State Reform Party (Star) to take a leaf from the mosquito political parties in Sabah and run amok, samseng-style, whenever they run into a spell of stormy weather in the media. The verdict from the Barisan Nasional (BN) is that the party (Star) needs a dose of its own medicine after running amok in recent weeks with numerous statements in the media.

Star’s inspiration stems from one particular mosquito party in the opposition – allegedly planning a reverse frogging after the 13^th GE -- in Sabah which has been known to avoid press interviews like the plague, preferring to hide behind public relations statements structured as “news stories” and written by journalists on the take – “ang pow journalism” -- in the local media, and responding to criticisms with venomous personal and offensive attacks against journalists who incur its wrath.

New Particle at World's Largest Atom Smasher is Likely Higgs Boson

SWITZERLAND: Physicists are more than 99 percent sure that they've found a new elementary particle that is likely the long-sought Higgs boson.

Evidence for the new particle was reported today (July 4) by scientists from the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. Researchers reported they'd seen a particle weighing roughly 125 times the mass of the proton, with a level of certainty that all but seals the deal it's the Higgs boson.

Palestinians: Arafat's body can be exhumed over poison "polonium" claim

By Dan Williams of Reuters

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Palestinian Authority agreed on Wednesday to the exhumation of Yasser Arafat's body after new allegations that he was poisoned with the radioactive element polonium-210 in 2004.

A Swiss institute that examined clothing provided by Arafat's widow Suha as part of an Al Jazeera expose said it found "surprisingly" high levels of polonium-210, though symptoms described in the president's medical reports were not consistent with the radioactive agent.

Siringan admits what colleague Masidi denied on poverty in Ranau

Jalibin Paidi of STAR

By Jalibin Paidi of State Reform Party
RANAU : When i made a statement early April this year that Ranau could well be the poorest district in Sabah, Keranaan Assemblyman Masidi Manjun denied it bluntly, saying there is no truth to it. But the very recent remarks by Ranau MP Siringan Gubat in Parliament as carried by local newspapers days ago had vindicated me on my contention.

It must be God's way of telling the ruling party Barisan Nasional that Ranau indeed is in poverty and in need of help. And that is a fact actually, when you go to the ground around Ranau town and in remoter kampungs, a fact some ruling leaders like Masidi prefer to deny, and therefore do nothing (because in their take there is no poverty).

‘Whose money is Musa holding?’

Sabah Chief Minister Musa has claimed that a large part of his multi-million fortune held in foreign accounts is not privately owned by him.

KUALA LUMPUR: PKR wants Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to clarify “leaked” investigation papers that a Swiss bank account linked to Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman contains US$100 million belonging to Umno.

Musa allegedly told Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers that the money in question traced to a bank in Zurich, Switzerland and under investigation by banking and criminal investigation agencies overseas was not his but Umno’s, said a senior PKR official.

PKR vice president Tian Chua who is also MP for Batu, said Najib must explain Musa’s alleged statement linking Umno and therefore the government to the hitherto secret party slush fund.

Should we continue paying taxes? — Lucius Goon

JUNE 30 — My wife and I pay our taxes on time and we are assessed at the highest tax bracket. We never avoided or evaded taxes and viewed it as a moral duty.

But let me put in a caveat. I believe the time has come for us taxpayers (and this excludes 90 per cent of civil servants, Umno politicians and their nominees as well as rent-seekers) to consider a campaign of civil disobedience against paying taxes until the government of the day can show that it can utilise this revenue in a responsible way.