Malaysia games: Perlis success prelude for Sarawak in 2016 edition

Malaysia games: Perlis success prelude for Sarawak in 2016 edition
Divorce may be linked to obesity in kids
Grave shortage in HK, it costs more to house the dead than the living
Koala shows it’s cool to be a tree hugger
Beijing ramps up security on Tiananmen crackdown
DGCA summons Airasia india’s rep, says no fee for check in baggage

Posted: 04 Jun 2014 08:00 PM PDT

KANGAR: Sarawak's success in the 17th Malaysia Games (Sukma) in Perlis is a prelude of things to come when they host next Sukma.

The 'Bumi Kenyalang' contingent were third overall in the medal standings in the Perlis Sukma with 48 gold, 32 silver and 35 bronze.

The Federal Territories were the overall chmapions with a collection of 55 gold, 38 silver and 49 bronze while Terengganu were runners-up (51-55-31).

Sarawak contingent deputy chef-de-mission Gerald Rentap Jabu said:

"Although we finished in third place, our medal haul was much better than in the Pahang edition in 2012 where were won 42 gold medals."

"I am proud of our achievement (in the Perlis Sukma), it will act as a catalyst for Sarawak to emerge as champions when we host the next Sukma."

Sarawak hosted the Sukma for the first time in 1990. — BERNAMA

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Divorce may be linked to obesity in kids

Posted: 04 Jun 2014 07:30 PM PDT

Children of divorced parents may be at higher risk of being overweight or obese than those whose parents are married, a Norwegian study said Thursday.

The tendency was higher among boys than girls, said the report, which nevertheless cautioned it was too early to draw a direct, causal link, as other factors may be to blame.

Researchers used height, weight and waist circumference data from more than 3,000 pupils attending 127 schools across Norway, which they compared to their parents' marital status — married, never-married, co-habiting, single, separated or divorced.

About one in five children overall were overweight, which is generally considered to mean a height-to-weight ratio or BMI of 25 or over, and one in 10 obese with a BMI of 30 and up, they reported in the online medical journal BMJ Open.

Children of divorced parents "were 54 percent more likely to be overweight/obese and 89 percent more likely to be obese," when compared to children whose parents were still married, the researchers said a press statement.

"Children whose parents had never married had a similar prevalence of overweight and obesity to those with married parents."

Sons of divorced parents were 63 percent more likely to be overweight and 104 percent more likely to be obese than other boys, while the difference was much less significant among girls.

The researchers had factored in possible influential factors like the mother's educational background, ethic origin and area of residence, but not others like the child's diet and exercise regime.

They also did not known how long parents had been divorced.

The team speculated that a shift to unhealthier and cheaper take-aways or stress-eating may explain the trend.

In a comment, Kevin McConway, an applied statistics professor at The Open University in England, said the findings may not hold true for societies outside Norway.

The study, he said, "really does little more than point at possible further questions for further research." -AFP

Grave shortage in HK, it costs more to house the dead than the living

Posted: 04 Jun 2014 07:04 PM PDT

HONG KONG: There's one thing even Hong Kong's more than 40 billionaires will struggle to buy – a final resting place on their home turf.

Land shortages in the late 1970s forced Hong Kong to ban construction of new permanent burial sites, and public cemeteries were ordered to ensure the remains of the deceased be exhumed and cremated after six years to make way for newcomers.

The policy has done little to alleviate the grave shortage in a city where more than 40,000 people die each year.

Some can get lucky if relatives choose to have the remains of a loved one removed from a
public burial site to be cremated, opening the prized permanent space to a lottery system, but plots may only come available every few years.

The only other way is if the deceased is a member of a church that has a private graveyard with a plot available, a very rare instance that can cost up to HK$3 million (US$386,900).

"In Hong Kong, people cannot buy a final resting place even if they have all the money in the world," said Hoi Pong Kwok, funeral director at Heung Fok Undertaker.

"The government doesn't just have to settle housing needs for the living.

It also needs to address those of the dead."

In land-hungry Hong Kong, where more than 7 million people are packed into just 30 per cent of the territory, failure to vacate a plot after six years means bodies will be exhumed by the government, cremated and put in a communal grave.

While the funeral policy has resulted in a surge in the number of people being cremated – 90 per cent of the city's dead were cremated in 2013, up from 38 per cent in 1975 – cremation is by no means the answer for those seeking a resting place.

Securing a niche in a public columbarium – a drab concrete structure where urns are placed – can take up to five years and there are officially more than 21,800 deceased on the waiting list for a space, which costs more than HK$3,000.

Funeral service providers say there are a further 100,000 jars of remains stored in funeral homes or at funeral companies across the city, some of which are also waiting for plots. — Reuters

Koala shows it’s cool to be a tree hugger

Posted: 04 Jun 2014 07:00 PM PDT

PARIS: Australia's cuddly koala rarely drinks water and doesn't have any sweat glands, long leaving scientists to wonder how it cools off in a heatwave.

Yesterday, zoologists announced they had uncovered the iconic mammal's secret – hugging trees, whose trunks can be several degrees cooler than the surroundings.

Koalas have high mortality rates in heatwaves. Unable to sweat, they use panting as a way of evaporative cooling, but in the wild, they rarely drink and when they need to, water is often scarce.

As tree-dwellers, koalas don't generally seek out cool, shadowy ground surfaces like many other animals.

Keen to unlock the marsupials' secret, a team of zoologists observed 37 koalas in the wild during winter and summer seasons in southeastern Australia in 2009 and 2010-11.

On hotter days, they found, the animals were more frequently positioned with all their limbs outstretched so they appeared to be hugging the tree trunk or lower branches.

The warmer it got, the lower the marsupials were found in the trees, and more often in trees other than eucalyptus, their food source.

This could be explained by the eucalyptus being only about 1.46-1.87 degrees Celsius (2.6-3.4 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than air temperature, compared to about 5.0 C for the acacia.

Based on their observations of tree temperature and koala behaviour, the team concluded the animals lose "substantial" body heat to tree trunks in hot weather.

"Water savings from this behaviour could be critical for the survival of this species during heatwaves when water availability is limited," said the study published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. — AFP

Beijing ramps up security on Tiananmen crackdown

Posted: 04 Jun 2014 06:59 PM PDT

Thousands of police and soldiers, some armed with rifles deployed across the capital as US demands release of detainees

BEIJING: China yesterday imposed smothering security in central Beijing on the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, a bloody watershed in history that remains a taboo topic in the communist nation.

The United States demanded the release of scores of people detained in the run-up to the anniversary, as the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong prepared for an annual candlelit vigil that this year is expected to draw as many as 200,000.

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, who makes an annual statement marking the anniversary, described the 1989 crackdown as "an enormous historical wound".

The leader of the self-ruled island, which is claimed by China, called on Beijing to "speedily redress the wrongs to ensure that such a tragedy will never happen again".

Thousands of police and other security forces, some armed with automatic rifles, have been deployed across the capital. There were numerous police trucks on and around Tiananmen Square yesterday, with fire engines and ambulances also visible.

Some security officers had fire extinguishers placed ready nearby.

Security has also been heightened recently after a spate of attacks that authorities blame on separatists from the far-western region of Xinjiang.

Tourists and vendors criss-crossed the vast public square in the heart of the city, but uniformed and plainclothes officers were stationed at every corner and checking the ID cards of passers-by.

An AFP journalist was ordered to delete photos of scuffles between police and frustrated pedestrians waiting to enter the main part of the square yesterday morning.

Hundreds of unarmed civilians – by some estimates, more than 1,000 – were killed during the June 3-4 crackdown of 1989, when soldiers crushed months of peaceful protests by students who were demanding political reform to match China's nascent economic opening up.

Since then China has worked hard to erase public memories of the bloodshed, censoring any mention of the incident from online social networks and detaining scores of activists, lawyers, artists and relatives of victims in recent weeks. — AFP

DGCA summons Airasia india’s rep, says no fee for check in baggage

Posted: 04 Jun 2014 06:46 PM PDT

NEW DELHI: AirAsia India's plan to charge a fee for all check-in baggage has been red flagged by the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The DGCA, on Tuesday, asked the airline to withdraw a number of proposed charges, including the fee on check-in baggage, as these were introduced without informing the aviation regulator, The Indian Express reported.

"We have asked the airline to withdraw charges for baggage and other services which were introduced without informing us," the report quoted an unnamed senior DGCA official as saying.

The official added that the airline representatives has also been summoned for a meeting on the issue on Wednesday.

While airlines in India have been allowed to unbundle services (charge for services), they have to inform the regulator before they introduce any such charge.

In this case, AirAsia India did not inform the aviation regulator, said the daily.

AirAsia, which is launching its flight between Bangalore and Goa on June 12, has done away with the concept of free check-in baggage of up to a certain minimum weight threshold and has, instead, introduced charges for all check-in baggage.

The charge for any check-in baggage weighing up to 15 kg is Rs199 (RM10.84) (if paid during the time of ticket booking) and Rs300 (RM16.34) for up to 15 kg (if paid at the airport counter).

All other low-cost carriers operating in the country offer free check-in baggage of up to 15 kg and full-service carriers offer up to 20 kg free check-in baggage.

Industry players, however, feel that the charges are fine till they are transparent and the customers are aware of the same.

"The consumer of today researches enough before booking a ticket and would be aware about the charges.

"I do not know see any reason for this withdrawal unless the charges were hidden for the consumer," said Sharat Dhall, President at Yatra.com, a travel portal. — BERNAMA