Bot Karam: Operasi mencari disambung Ahad

Operasi pada Sabtu terpaksa dihentikan pada jam 5 petang tadi akibat ombak tinggi dan angin kencang. - Gambar Fail

TANJONG KARANG: Pasukan bomba dan beberapa agensi penyelamat lain kini sedang berusaha mencari seorang lagi mangsa yang masih hilang, N. Ravi Shanker, 25 tahun, susulan insiden bot karam di Tanjong Karang yang meragut enam nyawa.

Bagaimanapun, operasi pada Sabtu terpaksa dihentikan pada jam 5 petang tadi dan akan disambung pagi esok akibat ombak setinggi dua meter dan angin kencang.

Dalam kejadian pada Khamis lalu, bot yang dinaiki 14 orang yang terdiri daripada sembilan anggota keluarga dan lima pekerja bot berlepas dari jeti nelayan Sungai Kajang pada pukul 3 petang bagi melakukan upacara keagamaan Hindu.

BACA: Bot karam, satu lagi mayat ditemui

Dua jam kemudian ia dilapor karam ketika dalam perjalanan pulang.

Tujuh orang berjaya diselamatkan nelayan tempatan. 

- Sumber: Astro Awani | Julai 18, 2015

Kerajaan Persekutuan sedia bayar balik RM1.8 bilion kepada Terengganu

LPT2 membolehkan perjalanan dari Kuala Terengganu-Kuala Lumpur dipendekkan kepada empat jam. - Foto Facebook LPT2

KUALA NERUS: Kerajaan Persekutuan sedia membayar balik sebanyak RM1.8 bilion yang dibelanjakan bagi pembinaan Lebuhraya Pantai Timur 2 (LPT2) kepada kerajaan negeri Terengganu, kata Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Razif Abdul Rahman hari ini.

Katanya tempoh dan kaedah pembayaran itu, yang merupakan 40 peratus daripada RM3.7 bilion kos keseluruhan LPT2, sedang dirundingkan kerajaan negeri dengan kerajaan Persekutuan.

Beliau berkata demikian pada majlis meraikan kira-kira 3,000 anak perantauan bagi Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) Seberang Takir sempena Aidilfitri dan penyerahan surat tawaran menunaikan fardhu haji kepada 12 bakal haji dalam Parlimen Kuala Nerus di sini.

LPT2 sepanjang 184 kilometer itu dibuka sepenuhnya pada 31 Dis tahun lepas, yang membolehkan perjalanan dari Kuala Terengganu-Kuala Lumpur dipendekkan kepada empat jam.

Ahmad Razif juga berkata LPT2, yang sebelum ini dikendalikan oleh Lembaga Lebuhraya Malaysia (LLM), akan diuruskan oleh Projek Lebuhraya Utara Selatan (PLUS) Berhad mulai bulan depan.

"Selepas ini segala kos untuk membaik pulih LPT2 akan dikeluarkan PLUS," katanya.

Selain itu, beliau berkata hentian Rehat dan Rawat, gerai dan stesen minyak LPT2 akan mula dibuka selepas bermulanya operasi PLUS. 

- Sumber: Bernama 

Reaksi Siti Nurhaliza terhadap kenyataan Sheila Majid

Siti dalam reaksinya berkata 'firasat' dan kebimbangan yang dizahirkan oleh Sheila itu, ada pro dan kontranya. - Gambar Fail

KUALA LUMPUR: Khalayak di Malaysia tidak meletakkan penghormatan yang sewajarnya kepada seni muzik dan penggiatnya sekali gus dikhuatiri akan menoktahkan hayat industri tersebut di negara ini.

Itu adalah petikan kenyataan, penyanyi yang sudah 30 tahun di dalam industri seni, Datuk Sheila Majid ketika dihubungi Astro AWANI baru -baru ini.

Sheila berkata khalayak sentiasa mengharapkan seseorang artis menghasilkan karya terbaik tetapi mereka tidak mahu membayar harga yang setimpal.

Perkara tersebut, katanya, membuatkan pelaburan penggiat seni hilang dan tidak berbaloi.

Penyanyi nombor satu negara, Datuk Siti Nurhaliza, dalam reaksinya berkata 'firasat' dan kebimbangan yang dizahirkan oleh Sheila itu, ada pro dan kontranya.

BACA: 'Industri muzik Malaysia mungkin berkubur' - Sheila Majid

- Sumber: Astro Awani 

In Japan, the elderly are committing more crimes than teenagers

Police authorities reported that "the number of people aged 65 or older subject to police action reached 23,656 between January and June. -EPA

TOKYO: New Japanese government data revealed for the first time that crime was higher among the country's elderly than teenage youth.

According to the Kyodo News Agency, police authorities reported on Thursday that "the number of people aged 65 or older subject to police action reached 23,656 between January and June, compared to 19,670 for those aged 14-19."

It's the first time the elderly have exceeded the young in crime data since 1989, when Japan started keeping tabs of crimes by age group.

It's a sign, Kyodo reports, of "Japan's graying society."

For quite some time, there's been a considerable focus on Japan's aging, shrinking population and the potential effects of its steady demographic slide. Some projections suggest Tokyo's population will halve by the end of the century; the Japanese capital is one of the few major urban centers in the world that is shrinking rather than expanding.

Parallel to this trend has been the curious rise in Japan's elderly crime rate, which doubled between 2003 and 2013, according to Bloomberg.

In 2011, the number of crimes committed by the elderly was six times what it was 20 years prior. Even as murder rates declined in Japan, homicides carried out by the elderly were rising.

Some 70 percent of the elderly crimes, according to a government white paper written in 2012, were acts of shoplifting by impoverished pensioners.

A 2012 editorial in the Japan Times said the surge in elderly crime "primarily [stems] from bad economic conditions," exacerbated by welfare cuts as more and more of Japan's population enter their twilight years.

Even minor offenses can garner jail time where some pensioners (as well as other elderly guilty of graver, more violent crimes), enter a strange reality.

One in five inmates in Japanese prisons is over the age of 60 -- a ratio far greater than that found in the US The inmates' health problems and social alienation often compound while incarcerated.

A 2008 dispatch in Britain's Guardian newspaper offered a snapshot of the situation:

The most common condition afflicting these men is loneliness. Some serve their sentences without seeing a single visitor. Their relatives are either dead, live too far away or, unable to cope with the shame of having a criminal in their midst, have ceased all contact.

"When one of those inmates dies, the prison discreetly arranges a cremation and sends the ashes to his closest relatives," Tomohiko Ogawa, the chief warden at Onomichi, says during a tour of the prison.

"When we did a survey of prisoners due to be released, half said they were happy, not because they were regaining their freedom but because they had someone waiting for them on the outside. Not all of them are so lucky."

- Source: The Washington Post

China held tourists after 'watching Genghis Khan video'

Tourists were held in China after they allegedly viewed a 'terrorist' documentary on Genghis Khan. Picture shows tourists queueing up at a check-in counter at Beijing airport. -EPA

BEIJING: Tourists who were held in China after being accused of looking at "terrorist" materials were detained after they viewed a documentary on Genghis Khan, a spokesman for two members of the group said.

A total of 20 visitors from South Africa, Britain and India were held at Ordos airport in China's northern Inner Mongolia region on Friday last week, sparking diplomatic concern.

Six Britons, five South Africans and one Indian have already been released, while the remaining eight tourists are expected to be deported in the coming days, officials in South Africa and at the British Embassy in Beijing said.

A statement released by a British-based spokesman for two of the group, Hoosain Jacobs and Tahira Jacobs -- who hold dual UK and South African nationality but travelled on South African passports -- claims all the tourists have been released without charge.

It also said the detentions may have been made after an "unfortunate misunderstanding" concerning Genghis Khan, a 13th century Mongolian warrior hero who founded an empire from eastern Europe to the South China Sea.

"They watched a documentary on Genghis Khan to further their understanding of the region they were in at the time, and this may have mistakenly been deemed as ‘propaganda’ material," the statement said.

"It can only be assumed that junior officials who made the initial arrest in Inner Mongolia made a mistake, due to perhaps their unfamiliarity of the English language."

Deluxe tour

The group were on a "deluxe sight-seeing tour of China" which was expected to last 47 days, starting in the former British colony of Hong Kong and ending in the commercial hub of Shanghai, the statement said.

They were arrested 30 days into the tour, following a visit to the Genghis Khan Mausoleum at Ordos, it said, adding that those involved were aged between 33 and 74.

An official at Ordos's foreign affairs office told AFP Thursday that he understood the group "looked at and propagated something about violence and terrorism."

Local police declined to comment on the case.

Gift of the Givers, a humanitarian relief organisation based in South Africa which was assisting members of the group, had previously said in a statement that the detentions took place after claims that "someone was watching propaganda videos in the hotel".

Eleven of the tourists were deported earlier this week, while an Indian man, Rajiv Mohan Kulshrestha, was released late Friday night and sent back to his home country early Saturday, officials confirmed.

"In the early hours of this morning, he was permitted to depart from Beijing," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said Saturday.

China has launched a wide-ranging crackdown on what it claims is "terrorism" in its restive western Xinjiang region.

A new criminal law submitted last month to China's rubber-stamp parliament widens the list of activities which can be defined as "terrorism", state media said.

The resource-rich Inner Mongolia region sees sporadic protests by Mongols against government policies which include moving nomadic herders from grazing lands into towns, and vast coalmine development.

- Source: AFP

KL-bound Malindo Air flight returns to Kuching

Malindo Air flight MXD1601, which departed at 9.35am, returned to the airport about 10 minutes later. -Filepix

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malindo Air flight en route from Kuching International Airport (KIA) to Kuala Lumpur was diverted back to Kuching this morning due to technical problems.

The MXD1601 flight was originally scheduled to arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA 2) at 11.20am.

A KIA spokesperson said the flight which departed at 9.35am returned to the airport about 10 minutes later.

"The (latest) rescheduled boarding time was about 12.15 noon but we cannot confirm the actual departure or take-off time yet. So, we are expecting at least a three-hour delay," she said adding that the delay was much regretted however necessary due to safety precaution.

Meanwhile, when contacted for clarification, Malindo Air CEO Chandran Rama Muthy explained that the pilot detected an increase in the temperature gauge located in the cockpit of the aircraft, which is an indicator that there was a problem. 

"In accordance with aviation safety procedures, the pilot decided to turn to the nearest airport which was Kuching International Airport, where it originally departed earlier," said Chandran.

- Source: Astro Awani 

300 cedera apabila kereta api bertembung di Johannesburg

Jurucakap Metrorail, Lilian Mofokeng, berkata, ketika kejadian, kedua-dua kereta api itu bergerak di landasan yang sama dari pusat bandar raya Johannesbury ke bandar Soweto. - Foto AFP

JOHANNESBURG: Sekurang-kurangnya 300 orang cedera apabila dua kereta api komuter bertembung di Johannesburg, Afrika Selatan.

Jurucakap perkhidmatan kecemasan Johannesburg, berkata, kira-kira 100 penumpang terselamat dan tiada kematian dilaporkan setakat ini.

Bagaimanapun, katanya 326 dikejarkan ke hospital berhampiran sejurus kemalangan itu berlaku dengan ada di antara mereka mengalami kecederaan parah.

Pasukan bomba masih lagi berusaha mengesan penumpang yang mungkin tersepit di dalam gerabak-gerabak komuter berkenaan.

Sementara itu, jurucakap Metrorail, Lilian Mofokeng, berkata, ketika kejadian, kedua-dua kereta api itu bergerak di landasan yang sama dari pusat bandar raya Johannesbury ke bandar Soweto.

Setakat ini, katanya, punca kemalangan itu belum diketahui dan sedang disiasat

Menurutnya, pihak berkuasa masih lagi mengumpul maklumat bagaimana, kedua-dua kereta api komuter itu boleh bertembung.

Kemalangan itu berlaku ketika waktu puncak. 

- Sumber: Agensi | Julai 18, 2015

F1 driver Jules Bianchi dead aged 25

Jules Bianchi died on Friday at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire in Nice.

Former Formula One driver Jules Bianchi has died just over nine months after his accident at the Japanese Grand Prix.

A statement from the Bianchi family said the 25-year-old died on Friday at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire in Nice.

"Jules fought right to the very end, as he always did, but today his battle came to an end," the statement read on Saturday.

"The pain we feel is immense and indescribable. We wish to thank the medical staff at Nice’s CHU who looked after him with love and dedication.

"We also thank the staff of the General Medical Center in the Mie Prefecture [Japan] who looked after Jules immediately after the accident, as well as all the other doctors who have been involved with his care over the past months.

"Furthermore, we thank Jules' colleagues, friends, fans and everyone who has demonstrated their affection for him over these past months, which gave us great strength and helped us deal with such difficult times. Listening to and reading the many messages made us realise just how much Jules had touched the hearts and minds of so many people all over the world.

"We would like to ask that our privacy is respected during this difficult time, while we try to come to terms with the loss of Jules."

Bianchi sustained a diffuse axonal injury at Suzuka in October when he collided with a recovery vehicle.

The Frenchman underwent surgery in Yokkaichi before being transferred to his home city of Nice.

The accident forced the race to be stopped and Frenchman Bianchi subsequently underwent emergency surgery after being transported unconscious to hospital, where he was in intensive care. 

- Source: Astro Arena

Kenapa Greece gagal membayar balik hutang?

Greece

HUJUNG bulan lalu, Greece telah melepasi tarikh akhir untuk ‎menjelaskan hutang negaranya sebanyak €1.6 bilion kepada Tabung Kewangan Antarabangsa (IMF), selepas menteri zon euro enggan melanjutkan hutang atau jaminan keluar (bailout) mereka.

Greece merupakan negara maju pertama yang gagal membayar balik pinjaman kepada IMF dan kini secara rasmi tertunggak.

Mengapa Greece terbeban hutang?

Memetik laporan USA Today, sama juga seperti isi rumah yang membelanjakan lebih banyak wang setiap bulan berbanding pendapatan, itulah juga yang terjadi kepada Greece selepas terpaksa menanggung bebanan hutang dengan berbelanja di luar kemampuan.

Menurut ketua pelaburan pejabat penasihat Cumberland, David Kator, pinjaman kerajaan yang berterusan untuk membiayai janji-janji ahli politik telah menyebabkan Greece menghadapi masalah tunai

Umur pesaraan di Greece ialah 57 tahun berbanding dengan Amerika Syarikat iaitu 61 tahun.

Walaupun umur persaraan yang pendek baik untuk pekerja di negara berkenaan tetapi ia sebenarnya memberi masalah besar kepada babak kewangan kerajaan.

Malah pembayar cukai di Greece mengelak kewajipan mereka untuk membayar cukai dan ia bermakna pendapatan kerajaan akan berkurang.

Siapa yang meminjam duit dan mengapa?

Pada mulanya kerajaan Greece meminjam berjuta juta dolar dari bank di Eropah namun Greece gagal membayar pinjaman tersebut.

Greece tidak dapat lagi untuk mengumpul dana daripada pasaran awam kerana pelabur bimbang mereka tidak akan mendapat balik wang mereka jika mereka meminjamkan wang kepada negara itu.

Dengan Greece pada laluan ke arah muflis pada awal tahun 2010 - dan ancaman krisis kewangan baru menjulang - negara ini mendapat pertamanya dua penyelamatan antarabangsa yang akan berakhir berjumlah 240 bilion euro yang dipanggil "Troika" (Bank Pusat Eropah, Tabung Kewangan Antarabangsa dan Kesatuan Eropah).

Sebahagian besar daripada wang yang dihutangkan Athens hari ini adalah untuk Troika, dan bukan kepada bank-bank Eropah.

Mengapa Greece gagal membayar balik hutang?

Terma bailout adalah ketat. "Penjimatan" pelan bermakna perbelanjaan kurang, cukai yang lebih tinggi, tindakan keras ke atas pelarian cukai dan langkah-langkah lain yang direka bentuk untuk mendapatkan kewangan Greece kembali ke landasan. Tetapi Greece masih tidak boleh datang dengan dana untuk membayar bil-bil mereka sendiri.

Akibatnya, keadaan kewangan Greece bertambah buruk. Kadar pengangguran adalah melebihi 25 peratus dan KDNK telah jatuh sebanyak kira-kira 30 peratus sejak tahun 2008, menurut data Bank Dunia hutang Greece hampir 200 peratus daripada KDNK.

Dasarnya kebanyakan wang bailout yang diterima Greece digunakan untuk membayar balik pinjaman daripada pemiutangnya. Dan ia adalah hampir mustahil untuk Greece untuk membayar hutang yang sangat besar apabila ekonomi adalah berprestasi rendah

Penyusunan semula ekonomi

Dalam pada itu, Parlimen Greece pada Isnin, meluluskan rancangan penyusunan semula ekonomi yang diumumkan sekali gus menyokong kerajaan haluan kiri pimpinan Perdana Menteri Alexis Tsipras berunding dengan peminjam antarabangsa.

Bagaimanapun, beberapa ahli daripada parti pemerintah, Syriza termasuk yang dipertua parlimen, Zoe Constantopoulou dan Menteri Tenaga, Panagiotis Lafazanis berkecuali daripada mengundi.

Cadangan baru untuk menyelamatkan Greece daripada bankrap membabitkan beberapa langkah meningkatkan cukai dan pengurangan perbelanjaan kerajaan.

Latar belakang krisis Greece

Berikut ialah kronologi krisis kewangan di Greece yang dipetik AP.

2010: Selepas setahun terlebih belanja, hutang awam Greece meningkat kepada 350 billion euro.

IMF dan kesatuan Eropah meminjamkan 110 billion euro kepada kerajaan untuk membantu kerajaan Greece membayar hutang sebagai langkah penjimatan (pemotongan perbelanjaan, pemotongan gaji, kenaikan cukai dan pembaharuan skim pencen)

2011: Protes keganasan terhadap langkah penjimatan. Kerajaan jatuh

2012: Kesatuan Eropah (EU) meminjam lagi 130 bilion euro. Sektor swasta Greece bersetuju untuk menghapuskan separuh hutang yang dipinjamkan dan mengurangkan hutang Athes kepada 100 bilion euro.

2015: Parti Syriza memenangi pilihan raya berjanji untuk merundingkan semula syarat bantuan. Sejak 2010 GDP telah menurun sehingga 25%, gaji dan 28% pekerja kehilangan pekerjaan.

FEB 20: Langkah bailout dilanjutkan kepada 30 June. Greece bersetuju untuk memulakan langkah untuk memulangkan semula 7.2 euro dalam dana penyelamat.

JUN 17: Selepas beberapa bulan gagal dalam langkah reformasi, Greece diberi amaran untuk meninggalkan zon euro dan kesatuan eropah.

JUN 27: Perdana menteri, Alexis Tsipras memanggil cadangan penyelamat.

Kesatuan Eropah enggan melanjutkan bailout selepas 30 Jun.

Pelanggan bank mula mengeluarkan wang dalam bank masing-masing.

JUN 29: Greece menutup bank sehingga 6 Julai untuk mengawal modal. Stok pasaran Athens ditutup sehingga 8 July. Stok jatuh di seluruh dunia.

JUN 30: Tarikh akhir Athens perlu membayar 1.5 billion euro kepada IMF tamat.

- Sumber: Sinar Harian 

RM70,000 in angpow money stolen from wedding

Wedding reception turns sour for newly-weds as their wedding Angpow box goes missing.Filepic

KUALA LUMPUR: A sweet Valentine’s wedding reception turned sour for newly-weds, Cia Cen Lim and Rachel Sim.

The couple had been greeting guests at Sutera Pekin restaurant, Johor Bahru at 7.50pm when they realised their wedding Angpow Box, containing some RM70,000 had gone missing.

“The money box was at the counter guarded by my sister and her boyfriend who were there for hours,” said Cia.

He said it was stolen when his sister’s boyfriend left the counter for a few seconds to attend to a guest. Cia claimed, his sister meanwhile had been distracted by one of the suspects. Closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage showed three suspicious looking men staging out the robbery.

"While my sister was distracted by a man, a guy went underneath the table to steal the Angpow box as seen in the CCTV footage," said the groom.

CCTV footage taken from the restaurant during the night of the incident. One of the suspects is seen with a black backpack- Astro AWANI/Cia Cen Lim

The Angpow box is seen missing from the counter and allegedly hidden beneath the table. - Astro AWANI/Cia Cen Lim

According to Cia, all three suspects were carrying black bags.

"One of them was even pretending to be a photographer, taking photos of guests while another was dressed up as a security guard with a vest, ” he added.

Cia has since lodged a police report at the Skudai Police headquarters but is disappointed with what he claimed as the police's inaction.

"They have asked us to look around the restaurant for clues," Cia said adding he had already provided the police with hundreds of photographs from that night.

Frustrated, Cia used photographs taken by his photographer Julius, to tell his story on social media websites, with the hopes of clamping down on the perpetrators. They have yet to receive any information from the police or the public regarding their misfortune.

Sergeant Marimuthu from the Skudai Police headquarters meanwhile confirmed receiving a report lodged by the couple.

He said the case is still under investigation.

This is the couple's third wedding reception which had cost some RM73,000. The first one was held in Adelaide, Australia followed by the second in Kuching, Sarawak.

- Source: Astro Awani 

The best age to get married if you don't want to get divorced

Conventional wisdom has it that the older you are when you get married, the lower your chances for divorce.

Conventional wisdom has it that the older you are when you get married, the lower your chances for divorce.

But a fascinating new analysis of family data by Nicholas H. Wolfinger, a sociologist at the University of Utah, suggests that after a certain point, the risk of divorce starts to rise again as you get older.

The risk of divorce declines steadily from your teens into your late 20s, but somewhere in the early 30s it starts to creep back up again.

As Wolfinger puts it: "Those who tie the knot after their early thirties are now more likely to divorce than those who marry in their late twenties."

The chart is based on a statistical analysis of data from the National Survey of Family Growth, a nationally-representative survey administered by the CDC every few years.

The greater divorce risk of younger couples makes some intuitive sense -- in your teens and early 20s, you're still figuring out who you are and what you want out of life.

That person who was perfect for you at 19 may seem a lot less perfect by the time you're 30.

But what about older couples? Let's say you wait until 40 to get married -- shouldn't you have a pretty good idea of what you want by then, making your risk of divorce lower?

Wolfinger thinks there's a selection effect happening here -- some people who wait a long time to get married simply may not be the marrying type, for instance.

"Perhaps people who marry later face a pool of potential spouses that has been winnowed down to exclude the individuals most predisposed to succeed at matrimony," Wolfinger writes.

It's important to remember that we're just talking about statistical risk here. If you wait until your 40s to get married, your relationship is by no means doomed.

And waiting until later in life is still a much wiser option that marrying early.

Looking at the raw divorce rates, for instance, Wolfinger found that people who married at age 35 or greater had a 19 percent risk of divorce, compared to a 20 percent risk for those aged 20 to 24, and a 32 percent risk for those who married before they were 20.

Another key point of context to note is that overall divorce rates are still on a 30-year decline from their peak in the early 1980s.

But the important thing, for Wolfinger, is that "we do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that people who marry in their thirties are now at greater risk of divorce than are people who wed in their late twenties. This is a new development."

And it will take some further research to suss out what this means for the demographics of marriage going forward.

- Source: The Washington Post

Hotel mewah menyediakan ‘bilik menangis’

TOKYO - JEPUN. Sebuah hotel mewah di Jepun telah menawarkan perkhidmatan yang unik, apabila menyediakan ‘bilik menangis’ khas untuk wanita menenangkan jiwa ketika sedang berduka.

Memiliki lapan buah bilik Moderate Single Rooms yang dijadikan bilik tangis, Hotel Mitsui Garden Yotsuya di Tokyo itu turut menyediakan keistimewaan lain.

Antaranya, alatan untuk menanggalkan solekan yang dibuat khas untuk memberi rasa segar dan nyaman kepada si pemakai, serta tisu berkualiti tinggi sehalus bulu biri-biri Kashmir.

Keperluan ini disediakan bertujuan mengurangkan bengkak pada wajah.

Selain itu, topeng wap mata juga turut diberikan untuk menenangkan emosi dan meredakan fikiran sepanjang melepaskan perasaan di bilik tersebut.

Menurut Pegawai Perkhidmatan Awam, hotel itu, Yohei Ezato berkata. tujuan bilik itu diwujudkan ekoran penunjuk trend wanita Jepun yang dikhabarkan makin tertekan dalam kehidupan mereka walaupun ramai di kalangan mereka yang mempunyai pencapaian yang cemerlang dalam hidup.

“Oleh itu dengan adanya bilik ini mereka boleh tenangkan diri, tanpa diketahui oleh orang lain, mereka boleh ‘bebaskan’ perasaan mereka tanpa malu dan segan,” katanya memetik laporan The Daily telegraph.

Bilik itu yang dilancarkan pada Mei tahun ini telah menerima sebanyak 16 tempahan.

Bilik menangis ini boleh ditempah dengan harga 10,000 yen atau RM300 semalam bagi tawaran promosi sehingga 31 Ogos ini.

- Sumber: the Daily Telegraph 

Kerana doa seorang banduan

Gambar hiasan

“SETIAP kali saya naik pangkat saya akan terkenang dekat dia,” demikian imbasan kenangan Timbalan Penguasa Penjara Kajang, Mohd Noor Abu Bakar, 55, ketika berbicara mengenai kenangannya sepanjang bertugas di Jabatan Penjara Malaysia.

Dia yang dimaksudkan oleh Mohd Noor ialah seorang bekas banduan lelaki yang pernah mendapat 'didikan' olehnya sekitar tahun 1990-an.

"Saya ketika itu bertugas sebagai wadar penjara di Kuantan, Pahang. Apa yang begitu terkesan kepada ‎saya ialah pada satu hari guru saya telah mendapat satu surat daripada seorang banduan.

"Catatan surat itu begitu menyentuh hati. Catatan itu tertulis: ‘Cikgu menerangi hidup saya, saya akan kenang jasa cikgu sampai bila-bila dan akan saya titipkan doa setiap hari buatmu cikgu.’

“Saya ingat sampai bila-bila catatan ini," katanya kepada Sinar Online baru-baru ini ketika ditemui di Penjara Kajang.

Jelas Mohd Noor mungkin doa daripada banduan itu beliau membolehkan beliau meniti dari satu kejayaan ke satu kejayaan.

"Dia ini masuk penjara oleh sebab kerana menagih dan merupakan seorang banduan yang seringkali kali masuk penjara. Namun, atas kerana dasar kerja, saya selalu menasihatkan dia supaya jangan lagi ulangi kesilapan lalu.

"Alhamdulillah, selepas dia bebas, saya dimaklumkan bekas banduan itu telah berjaya mengusahakan sebuah gerai sate. Apa yang membanggakan lagi, dia kemudiannya berjaya membuka restoran," katanya.

Namun ujar Mohd Noor, dia tidak dapat berhubung lagi dengan bekas banduan itu lagi kerana sudah bertukar tempat kerja.

"Saya harap dia berjaya dunia akhirat," katanya mengenang banduan itu antara mereka yang kembali ke pangkal jalan selepas menamatkan hukuman penjara.

Mohd Noor yang juga sudah 25 tahun berkhidmat dalam kerjaya di sebalik tirai besi ini berkata, kehidupan banduan banyak mengajar erti hidup dalam dirinya.

"Kisah hidup mereka sebenarnya banyak mengajar saya tentang erti sebenar kehidupan, mereka juga banyak menyedarkan saya tentang apa itu kenikmatan kebebasan, cabaran dan katanya yang mana penjara Kajang adalah penjara kedua selepas beliau berkhidmat di penjara Kuantan, Pahang.

Penjara ini mempunyai sistem kawalan keselamatan yang maksima, di mana ia dikelilingi dinding tembok. Menurut Mohd Noor sepanjang beliau berkhidmat di penjara

- Sumber: Sinar Harian