Archive - 4 January 2005

The health minister says the tsunami hit areas are free of disease outbreaks, also scotching rumours that seafood is unsafe for consumption.

Organisations collecting donations for the tsunami victims assure the public that all their contributions will be channeled to the tsunami victims in Aceh and Sri Lanka.

A check with embassies and high commissions in Kuala Lumpur reveals that no reports of death or injury to foreigners have been made as a result of the tsunami. However, a few have been reported missing.

They are from the Wee families in Kuching and have been in control of the Kuching Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry since it was set up. But that may not be the case much longer.

A university student who is trying to get donated emergency supplies through to tsunami survivors in Aceh has run into a bureaucratic tangle.

In reality how many Malaysians, including those who wrote in to blast the government, had heard of the word 'tsunami', and how many knew what to do even if a warning had been given?

The overwhelming rush to offer assistance to survivors of the tsunami around Asia has seen ordinary people coming out in numbers in Malaysia and Singapore as well.

They are expressing scepticism over the eventual delivery of the hefty sum in pledges made by donors for tsunami disaster relief operations in South and Southeast Asia.

Islamic hardliners who refuse to acknowledge the multifarious nature of Muslim society, only discredit the good name of the religion.

Will the Thai prime minister go after the Muslim NGOs in the south next? Leaders of various groups are expecting an imminent crackdown.

Broga villagers seeking clarification over the controversial incinerator project were left disappointed by a meeting with a senior government official.

A second tsunami survivor, a 23-year-old Acehnese man, has been plucked from the stormy Indian Ocean by a container vessel headed for Port Klang.

Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop says the economy will be unaffected by the tsunami which killed 68 people in Malaysia.

The prime minister also expressed concern over reports that traffickers in Indonesia were selling children whose parents were killed in the giant waves that shattered coastal regions in 11 countries.

Proton chief executive Mahaleel Ariff says the country's auto market is maturing and in a state of "chronic overproduction" due to easy issuance of licences to foreign car assemblers.

Initial investigations showed the men obtained the counterfeit US Federal Reserve Bonds, which have a face value of a billion dollars each, from the Philippines.

More than 10,000 residents in coastal districts in Sabah fled their homes in panic over the weekend after rumours that a tsunami was coming their way.