(MY082) Singapore millionaire finds long-lost wife

KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — A 62-year-old Singapore-born millionaire looking for his long-lost wife and son in Malaysia has apparently found the woman.

Negri Sembilan MCA public services and complaints bureau chairman Tung Kong Ming told The Straits Times that tycoon Yak Eng Wai had informed him of the good news yesterday.

“Yak called me using a friend's phone this morning to tell me that he has found his wife. He is now back in Brunei.”

Yak's plight was highlighted by the media, thanks to the bureau.

Tung also told The Straits Times that Yak — who made it big in Brunei as an auto service provider and parts trader — had not told him whether his wife had returned to Brunei with him.

“We are a public service centre, and we do not question much when someone comes to us for help,” he said.

The businessman told The Star newspaper on Tuesday that his wife, Ooi Suan Im, would be 61 now.

She left him in 1970 and returned to her family in Penang when she was pregnant with their second child.

She left their first child, a two-year-old boy, with her husband.

The boy, who was born with epilepsy, died in 1983 of viral fever.

Yak said he was separated from his wife at a time when he was trying to make ends meet, and when he was planning to move to Brunei in search of greener pastures.

He told The Star: “I have not been able to locate them despite making numerous attempts. Not a day goes by when I don't think of them and wonder how they are.

“It's been so many years but I will not be at peace until I find them.”

He said he had met up with his wife a few times in Penang before they lost touch in 1974.

He believed his son is now 37 years old and is known as Ah Teck.

Yak remarried in 1981 after moving to Brunei, and has a 25-year-old daughter.

After his search for his wife and son was publicised, the MCA office was swamped with telephone calls from people claiming to be the rich man's relatives.

Tung said he had had his hands full entertaining calls from people who claimed to have known Yak's family or said they were related to him.

“One caller said he was Yak's son but when I asked him to fax to me documents or to provide me with personal particulars, he did not get back to me.

“Another sent me a text message also claiming to be Yak's son but declined to be reunited with him. The person asked me to get Yak to contact him.”

Tung added that one caller had even asked for payment to help locate the family. — The Straits Times

(MY081) More than 300 injured by strong quake in China

BEIJING – A moderate earthquake rocked southwest China Thursday evening, injuring at least 336 people and collapsing 10,000 homes, state media said. The magnitude-6.0 temblor, centered in Yunnan province's Yao'an county, damaged another 30,000 homes, the Xinhua News Agency said.

Thirty people suffered severe injuries, while the other 305 were slightly injured, Xinhua said.

The quake was followed by eight aftershocks and the provincial civil affairs department was sending 4,500 tents, 3,000 quilts and other relief materials to Yao'an, Xinhua said.

Hundreds of police were dispatched to the disaster zone, it said.

Yunnan is a quake-prone, mountainous region that lies on China's southern border with Thailand and Myanmar. It also borders Sichuan province, where a magnitude-7.9 quake last year left almost 90,000 people dead or missing.

In 1988, a 7.1-magnitude quake in Yunnan near Myanmar killed more than 930 people. More than 15,000 people died after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake in the province in 1970, though authorities at the time covered up information on casualties and damage amid the chaos of the Cultural Revolution.


after the flood..the riot..now earthquake..

(MY080) 565K new jobless claims, lowest level since Jan

WASHINGTON – The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits last week fell to lowest level since early January, largely due to changes in the timing of auto industry layoffs.

Continuing claims, meanwhile, unexpectedly jumped to a record-high. While layoffs are slowing, jobs remain scarce and the unemployment rate is rising, which some economists worry could weaken or delay a recovery. The unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent last month and is expected to top 10 percent by the end of this year.

Separately, many retail chains reported disappointing June sales, as consumers are saving more and spending less.

New claims for unemployment insurance plummeted by 52,000 to a seasonally-adjusted 565,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's significantly below analysts' expectations of 605,000 for the week ending July 4, according to Thomson Reuters. The last time new claims were below 600,000 was week of Jan. 24.

"This is not as positive as it looks," Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a note to clients. "There are a number of special factors at play here, including the fact that the holiday-shortened week skewed the data."

(MY079) Use of vibrators common, surveys show

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Two Indiana University surveys suggest that vibrator use during sexual encounters is common among American men and women and is linked to better sexual health.

Dr. Debra Herbenick and colleagues surveyed 2,056 women between 18 and 60 years old and found that more than half of the women (52.5%) had used a vibrator, with nearly 1 in 4 having done so in the past month.

Women who used vibrators were more likely to have had gynecologic check up within the past year and were also more likely to have performed a genital self-exam within the past month.

In addition, women who used vibrators, and particularly recent users, reported more desire, arousal, lubrication, and orgasm, and less pain.

Most women (71.5%) said they never had any side effects associated with vibrator use and side effects that did occur were generally not severe or long-lasting.

Dr. Michael Reece and colleagues surveyed 1,047 men, also between 18 and 60 years old and found that, for both solo and partnered sexual activities, 44.8% of the men had used a vibrator at some point in their lives, with 10.0% having done so in the last month, 14.2% within the past year, and 20.5% at some point more than a year ago.

"Men who used vibrators, particularly those with recent use, were more likely to report participation in sexual health promoting behaviors, such as testicular self-exam," Reece and colleagues report.

In addition, men who reported recent vibrator use scored themselves higher on sexual desire, erectile function and satisfaction with sex and orgasms, than men who did not report recent vibrator use.

In an Indiana University-issued statement, Herbenick said: "The study about women's vibrator use affirms what many doctors and therapists have known for decades -- that vibrator use is common, it's linked to positive sexual function such as desire and ease of orgasm, and it's rarely associated with any side effects."

"The study about male vibrator use," Reece added, "is additionally important because it shows that vibrator use is also common among men, something that has not been documented before."

"Also, both studies help us to further understand the way in which American consumers are turning to the marketplace for products that promote their sexual health," Reece said.

The surveys, which were sponsored by condom manufacturer Church & Dwight Company, appear in the latest issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

SOURCE: Journal of Sexual Medicine, July 2009.

(MY078) Greenpeace activists arrested for banner on Mount Rushmore

CHICAGO (AFP) – Greenpeace activists were arrested Wednesday for scaling Mount Rushmore and hanging a banner next to the carved face of Abraham Lincoln urging President Barack Obama to get tough on climate change.

A video posted on the environmental group's website showed the massive banner hanging on the South Dakota mountain face.

Its message -- "America honors leaders not politicians: Stop Global Warming" and an unfinished portrait of Obama -- was barely visible as it was whipped by wind.

"Doing what it takes to solve global warming demands real political courage," Greenpeace USA deputy campaigns director Carroll Muffett said in a statement.

"If President Obama intends to earn a place among this country's true leaders, he needs to show that courage, and base his actions on the scientific reality rather than political convenience."

(MY077) F1 Teams Association walks out of FIA meeting

LONDON – The Formula One Teams Association has walked out of a meeting with the sport's governing body to discuss cost-cutting measures.

The FIA was to meet Wednesday with the 13 teams that have entered the 2010 F1 championship to discuss measures agreed to last month that kept FOTA from forming a breakaway series.

But there has been no agreement over a minimum weight limit or on signing a legally binding agreement to reduce costs to the level of the early 1990s.

The FIA said: "The eight FOTA teams were invited to attend the meeting to discuss their further proposals for 2010. Unfortunately no discussion was possible because FOTA walked out of the meeting."

FOTA's members are Ferrari, McLaren BMW Sauber, Renault, Toyota, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Brawn GP

(MY076) Chinese troops flood streets after riots

URUMQI, China – Thousands of Chinese troops flooded into this city Wednesday to separate feuding ethnic groups after three days of communal violence left 156 people dead, and a senior Communist Party official vowed to execute those guilty of murder in the rioting in western China.

Long convoys of armored cars and green troop trucks with riot police rumbled through Urumqi, a city of 2.3 million people. Other security forces carrying automatic rifles with bayonets formed cordons to defend Muslim neighborhoods from marauding groups of vigilantes with sticks.

Military helicopters buzzed over Xinjiang's regional capital, dropping pamphlets urging people to stay in their homes and stop fighting. Special police from other provinces were called in to patrol the city.