Two held with materials related to Chin Peng

Penang police detained two men, a local with the title of Datuk Seri and the other from Hong Kong, after they were found to be in possession of several materials related to communism and former communist leader Chin Peng, here on Tuesday.

Penang police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi said on inspection of their baggage, police found 13 books related to communism besides 11 souveniers and eight DVDs themed Chin Peng as well as pictures of Chin Peng.

The local aged 66 and the 59-year-old Hong Kong man were detained at the Penang International Airport before being brought to the Bayan Baru police station for further investigations.

"They are believed to have brought in the materials either for their own use or circulation. The book were in dual language - Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese," he told reporters.

It is learnt the duo arrived on a commercial flight from Bangkok and were detained at 10.30pm at the arrival hall 30 minutes after the plane landed.

To a question, Abdul Rahim said police did not find any ashes of Chin Peng in the baggage inspected.

According to him, the suspects were being investigated under the Printing Presses and Publications (Amendment) Act 2012. Chin Peng, 89, was reported to have died at a hospital in Bangkok last week.

- BERNAMA 

The iPhone gold rush hits the auction sites

NEW YORK CITY:  Consumers are bidding thousands of dollars on eBay for hard-to-find gold iPhones.

On the same day that Apple announced that it had sold over 9 million iPhone5S and iPhone 5C handsets, essentially selling through its entire initial stock, bidding for the hard-to-find handsets went from active to insane on eBay, with one gold iPhone 5S handset eventually selling for the scarcely believable sum of $10,100.

Disappointed consumers have started turning to auction sites to get their hands on what is quickly turning out to be this year’s must-have smartphone and it appears that they are being motivated in part by industry whispers that the gold version of the 5S handset (the flagship phone is also available in silver and a color that Apple calls ‘space grey’) is only going to be made in very limited quantities.

 Business Insider claims that some countries and network carriers were not given any gold handsets to sell and that even in its biggest existing market -- i.e., the US -- Apple stores in some cities had as few as 20 examples in total to sell.

Apple has said that it is ramping up production of the gold 5s to meet demand, and a quick glance at the company’s website shows that online orders will be honored in roughly one month. Nevertheless a brisk trade in handsets is being done on eBay where the devices are selling on average for $2000 -- four times the in-store price. 

A lot of three phones currently stands at $4500 with two days left to run until the auction closes. The gold iPhone might be rare at this particular moment in time but soon there will be more available devices than there are consumers willing to buy them.

Apple has already sold 9 million handsets in just over three days, 1 million fewer than Samsung sold of its latest flagship the Galaxy S IV, however it has taken 28 fewer days to do so. Samsung took a month to hit that figure and at no point were its loyal band of consumers forced to turn their attention to online auction houses to fill the tech void in their lives.

- AFP RELAXNEWS