Fat orangutan put on diet!

KUALA LUMPUR: An obese orangutan has been put on a strict diet by Malaysian wildlife authorities after two decades of gorging on junk food handed out by tourists, a report said Friday.

Jackie reportedly weighs 100 kilograms (16 stone), twice the normal weight of an adult female in the rich jungle habitats of Borneo island.

The 22-year-old ape was relocated more than three months ago by the wildlife department in the state of Sabah -- which lies in the northeast of Borneo -- because visitors to the Poring forestry park kept feeding her.

Department director Laurentius Ambu was cited in a newspaper report saying that Jackie's familiarity with her human carers led her to seek out tourists at the park's visitors' area.

"I am glad that Jackie is a much happier orangutan now," Ambu was quoted as saying in The Star.

Officials could not be immediately reached for comment but Ambu was reported as saying Jackie's weight-loss programme would "take time".

The primate's new diet is said to include more leafy vegetables and fruit.

Experts believe that between 50,000 and 60,000 orangutans are left in the wild, 80 percent of them in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia.

Orangutans are faced with extinction from poaching and the rapid destruction of their forest habitat, driven largely by palm oil and paper plantations.


- AFP

Wanita Malaysia jadi tauke rumah pelacuran di Sydney

MELBOURNE: Seorang wanita Malaysia, yang memaksa wanita muda dari negaranya menjadi hamba seks di sebuah rumah pelacuran di Sydney, dikenakan hukuman sekurang-kurangnya penjara tiga tahun.

Australian Associated Press (AAP) melaporkan Wong Chee Mei, 39, didapati bersalah pada April kerana menjalankan perniagaan pelacuran dan empat pertuduhan mengambil pekerja yang melanggar peraturan visa dan mengeksploitasi mereka.

Ketika menjatuhi hukuman penjara maksimum enam tahun ke atasnya pada Jumaat, Hakim Deborah Sweeney berkata Wong "tidak melayan wanita berkenaan seperti manusia, tetapi sebagai komoditi -- mesin untuk membuat duit".

Antara 2008 dan 2009, Wong mengambil beberapa wanita Malaysia dan menguruskan kemasukan mereka ke Australia dengan menggunakan visa pelajar.

Wanita berkenaan, yang tidak tahu berbahasa Inggeris, diberitahu mereka perlu bekerja sehingga selesai menjelaskan kos tambang kapal terbang, visa dan yuran kursus, yang keseluruhannya berjumlah A$5,800 seorang.

Kesemua wanita malang itu dipaksa menjadi hamba seks dan dikenakan pelbagai ugutan, kata Sweeney. "Mereka dipamer di hadapan pelanggan dengan hanya menggunakan nombor sebagai pengenalan diri," kata hakim itu yang dipetik AAP.

Seorang wanita memberitahu mahkamah dia dipaksa bekerja 17 jam setiap hari di rumah pelacuran itu dan didenda A$10 jika terlewat.

Sweeney berkata Wong memberi ubat kepada wanita terbabit untuk menyekat kedatangan haid dan menempeleng seorang daripada mereka kerana datang bulan.

Jika diambil kira tempoh tahanan yang dilalui Wong, tarikh paling awal pembebasannya ialah 30 Mei 2016.


- BERNAMA