The Daily News

I have learned a lot about what is going on in Malaysia by reading the daily newspapers. There are a lot of different newspapers published in a variety of languages. Usually, I read two, and sometimes three, papers each day. Because today was particularly newsworthy, I thought I would share some of the stories with you.

Of course, the big news of the day is that Zaid is leaving PKR (Malaysian poliics). Zaid says that he will make a full statement on his blog on Friday, so I hope you can survive the suspense until then.

Good Publicity




The New Strait Times had a story today about the Click Camp. It was great to get some publicity about the even in a national paper.

http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/22lish/Article#ixzz15Plbz4yP

Good News
I was pleased to see this headline in the NST- "Corals bouncing back to life". According to this article, up to 80% of the corals that were bleached during the massive bleaching event that occured last July are starting to recover. Hopefully, this is a very good sign!

Big Troubles Ahead
We are entering the rainy season in this part of the world, and for a variety of reasons it appears that it is going to be especially wet this year. I don't know if the big floods that occured in Thailand a couple of weeks ago or the flooding that occured in northern Malaysia last week got any press in the US. They are anticipating big flood problems in the eastern state of Terennganu. According to the Malaysian Meteorological Deparment parts of Terennganu are predicted to receive 100 cm (that's one meter) of rain next month! That is more rain than Lubbock receives in over two years!!!

Bittersweet News
The Asian Games, basically Olympics for Asian nations, is currently going on in China. The good news is that Chai Fong Ying won Malaysia's first gold medal in Wushu, a form of Chinese martial arts. The bad news is that Fong Ying's grandfather passed away last week and her family decided not to tell her until she returns honme from the competition.


photo from The Star Online

In other Asian Games news, Malaysia's Ibrahim Amir won the Silver Medal in 8 Ball.

Here is a story that we probably wouldn't see back home.
"Killed over boar meat". According to this story in the NST, " a man was stabbed to death on Sunday night all because the two brothers with whom he went wild boar hunting were unhappy with the distribution of the meat they had bagged." You guys that hunt wild hogs down in southern Texas should be careful.

Finally, a potential "Darwin Award" winner.
"Electrocuted while stealing cables". According to this article in NST, "a 30 year old man was electrocuted while he was believed to have veen trying to steal cables at the National Power Company substation". Police recoved a wrench and a steel cutter near his body.