An Unfair Report by AFP...

Malaysian Indians boycott Hindu festival

AFP - Wednesday, January 23

Malaysian Indians boycott Hindu festival

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - - Malaysian Indians stayed away in droves from a popular Hindu festival Wednesday, in a boycott linked to allegations of discrimination by the nation's majority Muslim Malays.

The colourful Thaipusam festival, during which devotees pierce their bodies with hooks and skewers, usually attracts more than a million people to Kuala Lumpur's Batu Caves temple, set in a spectacular limestone cavern.

But this year activists called on Hindus to celebrate elsewhere, accusing temple managers of assisting police who cracked down hard on a demonstration there last November, using tear gas and water cannons.

The crowds were thin Wednesday, numbering only in their tens of thousands, thanks to the boycott call and the prospect of more trouble.

A series of SMS text messages had called on ethnic Indians who did turn up to use their sandals to pelt political leaders including Samy Vellu, the leader of the Malaysian Indian Congress which is a member of the ruling coalition.

The veteran politician, who has sided with the government and been accused of neglecting the interests of his constituents, insisted there were at least half a million people at the complex and a million the day before.

"I have come to Thaipusam since I was 11 years old. I know the crowd. It is the same as before," he told reporters at Batu Caves.

"I don't think religious people who went to pray to Lord Murugan will listen to all the naughty fellows," he said of the SMS campaign.

"Who can threaten us? Anyone who threatens us we can find out where he is. It takes only five hours to find out where he is. They can't run away from us."

Stallholders and devotees lamented the small turnout and said ethnic Indians should work together to promote their cause.

"The crowd is normally double or triple this size. Now it's so small, so there is not so much of a great mood this time," said N. Kumaran, 41, a civil servant who has taken part in the festival for the past 14 years.

Sweet seller Joga Singh said that with the crowds so thin he and other vendors were not making any money this year.

"I think many people are afraid to come because of the SMS to boycott. Our business is suffering because of it," he told AFP.

At least 3,000 ethnic Indians gathered in the temple grounds to protest in November, and more than 8,000 people massed elsewhere the following day in unprecedented scenes that shocked the government.

In December it jailed five ethnic Indian activists under draconian internal security legislation that allows for detention without trial.

Malays, who make up 60 percent of the country's 27 million population, control the government while ethnic Chinese, who make up 26 percent of the population, dominate business.

Ethnic Indians, who make up 8.0 percent of the population, complain they run a distant third in terms of wealth, opportunities and education

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MalaysianChoice - This report sounds not so good. They trying to break the malaysian community. No where in this world can handle the country with multiple races control the government like malaysia. This report is not good. They should show the colourful of this thaipusam festival...+ report gain a positive mindet to all.

malaysian-choice : choose harmonic report for all races.

Malaysian PM tips election losses

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 23, 2008 (AFP) - Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has conceded that the ruling coalition is unlikely to score a repeat of its 2004 landslide victory in the next general elections.

Abdullah is expected to hold a ballot in March, but faces an array of negative factors including public anger over rising food and fuel prices, unprecedented street protests, and problems within coalition parties.

Asked if he was confident of the 14-party National Front coalition repeating its stunning 2004 election victory, Abdullah said: "I don't think so. If I get (a repeat), I'll be very, very happy, (but) I'm very practical."

According to the state Bernama news agency, Abdullah said late Tuesday that the 2004 results garnered after he replaced former leader Mahathir Mohamad were an exception as the change had brought about high hopes.

"There were high expectations, a lot of things to change, but I cannot change everything and there was an expectation," he said in acknowledgement of feelings that he has failed to fulfil some of his core promises.

"This has to be done, that has to be done. It's not that we have not done anything, I've started to implement practically everything that I promised," he said.

"I have started to do it and it is in the process of being implemented. That's what we are doing."

The government has been shaken by rare public demonstrations which erupted last November, targeting a variety of causes including alleged discrimination against Malaysia's ethnic Indians, and electoral reform.

There is also discontent over the government's warning it will have to remove costly fuel subsidies, and anger over spiralling food prices and periodic shortages of staples including flour and oil.

After a resounding victory in 2004, which reversed losses made in 1999, commentators say the pendulum is likely to swing against the government again.

The ruling United Malays National Organisation has led the National Front coalition in government for half a century.

Malaysia urges global community to make Israel lift blockade on Gaza

AP - Wednesday, January 23

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia, which chairs the world's largest Islamic bloc, urged the global community Tuesday to make Israel lift its blockade of Gaza strip before it turns into a humanitarian catastrophe.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who chairs the 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference, condemned the blockade and the closing of all border closings between Israel and Gaza as "inhumane."

"The Palestinians have the right of access to food, fuel and medicine. The inhumane action by the Israelis would make the living conditions of the Palestinian people even more unbearable," Abdullah said in a statement.

The blockade has "exacerbated the already worsening humanitarian crisis in the area and this will cause a humanitarian catastrophe," he warned.

Abdullah also called on the United Nations to hold an open-ended session of the U.N. Security Council so that other countries could participate on the debate on Gaza.

Israeli has already eased the blockade _ imposed in response to a sharp increase in rocket attacks by Palestinian militants _ after Gaza's Hamas government and aid agencies warned of an impending humanitarian crisis.

On Tuesday, Israel delivered fuel for Gaza's only power plant, which provides electricity to about one-third of Gaza's 1.5 million residents. Other areas of Gaza are supplied directly by Israel and Egypt, neither of which cut off service.

Malaysia's Islamic-run state to strictly separate lines for men, women in supermarkets

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia's only state run by the Islamic opposition party will get stricter about enforcing separate lines for men and women at supermarkets since many shoppers have been flouting the rule, an official said Tuesday.

Authorities in the northern state of Kelantan _ governed by the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party _ will fine supermarkets and shops if they let men and women use the same lines at checkout counters, said party spokesman Anual Bakri Haron.

He said Chief Minister Nik Aziz Nik Mat has called for stricter enforcement "to safeguard the ladies" from being harassed and to avoid close proximity between opposite sexes while lining up to buy groceries.

"He wants the enforcement to be looked into thoroughly," Anual told The Associated Press.

Kelantan is the only Malaysian state governed by the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party. The rest are ruled by the National Front coalition, which is made up of various parties representing Malaysia's different ethnic groups.

The coalition is dominated by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's United Malays National Organization party, which draws its support from the ethnic Malay Muslims who account for 60 percent of the country's 27 million people.

The Islamic opposition party, which has ruled Kelantan for more than 17 years, imposed the separate lineup rule as part of its agenda to promote Islamic values. In recent years, however, people ignored the regulation and there was little enforcement.

Drinking coffee may lower ovarian cancer risk: study

LONDON (Reuters) - Caffeine appears to lower a woman's chances of developing ovarian cancer, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday, while smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol do not.

The benefit for caffeine drinkers also seemed strongest for women who had never used oral contraceptives or postmenopausal hormones, the researchers wrote in the journal Cancer.

"With regard to caffeine and caffeine-containing beverages, we generally observed a lower risk of ovarian cancer with increasing intake," Shelley Tworoger of Harvard Medical School and colleagues wrote.

Worldwide there are more than an estimated 190,000 new cases of ovarian cancer each year, a disease more common after age 50. Women often have mild or no symptoms until the disease has progressed.

Previous studies have linked caffeine consumption with lowered cancer risk but the researchers said further work was needed to determine the biological reasons driving the protective benefits they found in ovarian cancer.

The team examined data taken from health questionnaires of more than 121,000 women aged 30-35 as part of a Utah study.

The researchers found no significant link between current or past smoking or drinking and overall ovarian cancer risk, though cigarettes seemed to raise the likelihood of one rare form of the disease.

Risk also appeared to decline the more total caffeine and coffee a woman consumed, the study found. Decaffeinated coffee had no apparent benefit.

"The possibility that caffeine may reduce ovarian cancer risk, particularly for women who have not previously used exogenous hormones, is intriguing and warrants further study, including an evaluation of possible biological mechanisms," the researchers wrote.

(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Janet Lawrence)