Blind couples get to live normal life in Taman Cahaya

Blind couples get to live normal life in Taman Cahaya
MH370: Unidentified material washed ashore at Augusta, Australia
Australia says cost not a concern in MH370 search
Poor weather forces air search OP to be suspended again

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 09:21 AM PDT

SANDAKAN: The establishment of a residential area for blind couples in Taman Cahaya has helped them to lead an independent and normal life.

Taman Cahaya supervisor Ibrahim Abdul Hamid said the residential area, the first of its kind in the country, is home to 11 families since four years ago.

"We are pleased to help the couples who began as trainees of Taman Cahaya," he told Bernama, here yesterday.

The residential area comprises wooden buildings that used to be the Taman Cahaya training centre built in 1969.

The blind couples were allowed to move into the buildings after the training centre moved to Kompleks Penyayang in 2010.

Ibrahim said Taman Cahaya continues to help former trainess who have started families so that they do not burden other people.

"If there are former trainees who are sick or their wives want to give birth, it is our responsibility to send them to hospital and send them back home after everything is done.

"Nurses also visit their homes on a regular basis to ensure that their health is not neglected."

Ibrahim said Taman Cahaya had applied to the state government to build affordable housing for the poor to replace the old buildings.

"I made the application last year and hope the state government can help to provide more comfortable homes for the blind."

Meanwhile, two residents expressed appreciation on efforts undertaken by Taman Cahaya to provide them with a special residential area.

Laimin Sagading, 46, who has two daughters aged eight months and two years said life would be better with water and electricity supply.

Meanwhile, Yusuf Aparal,50, said the residential area allowed his family to stay in their own houses.

A Bernama check found that the residents rely on rain water stored in tanks for daily use and resort to candles and kerosene lamps at night. — Bernama

MH370: Unidentified material washed ashore at Augusta, Australia

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 04:21 AM PDT

PERTH: Western Australian police have attended a report of material washed ashore 10 kilometres east of Augusta, about 322 km south from here and have secured the material.

The Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) was currently examining the photographs of the material to determine whether further physical analysis was required and if it had any relevance to the search of the missing flight MH370.

The ATSB had also provided the photographs to the Malaysian investigation team, the agency which oversees the search operation for the missing flight said in their latest statement, late Wednesday.

Any further information would be made available if and when it became available, the agency added.

The ongoing visual search operation on Wednesday lies approximately 855 km north west of Perth.

Flight MH370, with 239 people aboard, left the KL International Airport at 12.41 am on March 8 and disappeared from radar screens about an hour later while over the South China Sea. It was to have arrived in Beijing at 6.30 am on the same day.

A multinational search was mounted for the Boeing 777-200 aircraft, first in the South China Sea and then, after it was learnt that the plane had veered off course, in the southern Indian Ocean.

After an analysis of satellite data indicated that the plane's last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced on March 24 that Flight MH370 "ended in the southern Indian Ocean".-Bernama

Australia says cost not a concern in MH370 search

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 11:50 PM PDT

Australia said Wednesday cost was not a concern in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, after the mini-sub plumbing the depths of the Indian Ocean for wreckage ended its ninth mission empty-handed.

Australia is leading the multinational search for the Boeing 777 which vanished on March 8 carrying 239 people, and is bearing many of the costs of the mission expected to be the most expensive in aviation history.

"There will be some issues of costs into the future but this is not about costs," Defence Minister David Johnston told reporters in Canberra.

"We want to find this aircraft. We want to say to our friends in Malaysia and China this is not about cost, we are concerned to be seen to be helping them in a most tragic circumstance."

China, whose citizens made up two-thirds of the passengers onboard the ill-fated flight, and Malaysia are among eight countries including Australia which have committed assets to the Indian Ocean search.

But with no confirmed sightings of debris from the flight on the surface so far, the search moved underwater nearly two weeks ago.

Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre, which is fronting the search, said Wednesday the device looking for the plane on the seabed had scanned some 80 percent of its target zone without result.

The torpedo-shaped autonomous underwater vehicle called a Bluefin-21 is on mission 10 in the underwater search area, JACC said.

"Bluefin-21 has now completed more than 80 percent of the focused underwater search area.

"No contacts of interest have been found to date."

The device is searching an area at least 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) deep defined by a 10-kilometre (six-mile) radius around a detection of a signal believed to be from the plane's black box heard on April 8.

A visual surface search involving up to 10 military aircraft and 12 ships was also planned for Wednesday, despite suggestions last week that this aspect would be scaled down in coming days.

The visual hunt would cover an area totalling about 37,948 square kilometres (14,650 square miles) some 855 kilometres (530 miles) northwest of Perth, JACC said.

Johnston said Australia was tracking the cost of the mission, and if the Bluefin-21 failed to spot wreckage the search would move into a new phase, but said Canberra was committed to the task.

"We move to the next phase which is a more intensive single sideband sonar type programme, I suspect, but let's take advice of the experts as to where we go forward," he said.

"But the enthusiasm, the dedication and commitment to doing what we've been doing has not waned, we are still out there, we're still flying, we're still on the surface, in our ships. We are still looking."

Johnston said Australia was talking with its partners about the assets needed for the next phase of the search for the plane which mysteriously diverted en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

"We are working that up now in consultation with our friends," he said. -AFP

Poor weather forces air search OP to be suspended again

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 11:47 PM PDT

by Nik Nurfaqih Nik Wil. Posted on April 23, 2014, Wednesday

PERTH: The planned air search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 some 855 kilometres north west of Perth has been forced to be suspended again Wednesday, due to poor weather.

Three aircraft had already departed for the search earlier Wednesday prior to the suspension being recalled, the Joint Agence Coordination Centre which oversees the search operation said.

The agency in their latest statement said that the weather conditions resulted in heavy seas and poor visibility, which made the air search activities ineffective and potentially hazardous.

The air search operation normally will take up eight hours return trip to the search location and two hours to do the search operation.

However, the 12 ships involved in the Wednesday's search will continue with their planned activities.

On Tuesday, the air search operation was also suspended due to Tropical Cyclone Jack but later on the same day, it was resumed by five military aircraft.

Earlier today, the agency in a statement said up to ten aircraft wouldcontinue the search operation Wednesday despite weather forecast indicated chances of heavy rain and prevailing weather condition.

A multinational search was mounted for the Boeing 777-200 aircraft, first in the South China Sea and then, after it was learnt that the plane had veered off course, in the southern Indian Ocean.