Sabtu, 22 Jun 2013

The Star Online: Sports

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The Star Online: Sports


Motor racing: Le Mans tragedy as Simonsen dies

Posted: 22 Jun 2013 04:50 PM PDT

LE MANS (France): The Le Mans 24 Hour race was in mourning on Saturday when Danish driver Allan Simonsen (pic) died after a horror high-speed crash at the wheel of an Aston Martin.

The 34-year-old, competing in the mythic race for the seventh time, spun off on the third lap into the safety barriers at the ultra-quick Tertre Rouge bend, demolishing his car.

Le Mans organisers The Automobile Club de l'Ouest issued a statement reporting that emergency services were immediately at the scene to attend the stricken driver.

It continued: "In a serious condition, Allan Simonsen was transferred immediately to the Circuit Medical Centre where he died soon after due to his injuries.

"The Automobile Club de l'Ouest wishes to express its great sadness following this incident, and extends its deepest condolences to the family and those close to Allan Simonsen."

Simonsen crashed barely ten minutes after the start of the 81st edition of the showpiece endurance event with rain and wind combining to make testing conditions at the Sarthe circuit.

The race was stopped for an hour, the time required to remove wreckage form Simonsen's car from the track and repair the safety barrier.

The father of one, driving an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, was competing in the GTE-Am category.

His team mates in the No.95 car were his fellow countrymen, Christoffer Nygaard and Kristian Poulsen. Two days ago they had been celebrating taking pole position.

Former Formula One champion Jenson Button led tributes to Simonsen. The McLaren driver posting on Twitter: "Allan Simonsen RIP.such a tragic loss. A true fighter & a true racer. Safety is something we need 2 improve on in Motorsport."

Another former F1 champion, Finn Kimi Raikkonen, added: "R.I.P. Allan Simonsen. Sad news."

Marussia's Max Chilton wrote: "Truly saddened by the news from Le Mans that Allan Simonsen has passed away after his lap 3 accident" Simonsen's team's website was replaced by a black screen, featuring only the company logo and a statement.

It read: "It is with great shock and sadness that the Aston Martin Racing Team confirms that an accident occurred shortly after the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at around 15:09 hrs CET today (22 June) when the No 95 Vantage GTE driven by Allan Simonsen left the track at Tertre Rouge.

"Tragically, and despite the best efforts of the emergency services in attendance, Allan's injuries proved fatal.

"Aston Martin Racing will not make any further comment until the precise circumstances of the accident have been determined.

"At the specific request of his family, the team will continue to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in tribute to Allan."

The British constructor's racing team managing director John Gaw added, "On behalf of all of us at Aston Martin Racing, I would like to extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to the individuals, and families whose friends or loved ones were involved in today's terrible tragedy".

Simonsen was the first driver to perish during the race since Austrian Josef Gartner, driving a Porsche, in 1986, and the 23rd overall, including fatalities in qualifying for the race.

Simonsen, who listed Le Mans as his favourite circuit on his personal webpage, was born in Odense, and graduated to endurance racing after starting out as a mechanic.

The 1999 Danish Formula Ford champion's last success came in April at Silverstone where he won the GT-AM class in the Aston Martin with Poulsen and Nygaard.

In the race itself, eight-time champion Tom Kristensen led the way at midnight in his Audi. The Toyota of Japan's Kazuki Nakajima was second. - AFP

Shalin on course for Masters Open title

Posted: 22 Jun 2013 05:32 PM PDT

GEORGE TOWN: Shalin Zulkifli put herself in contention for the Masters Open title in the fourth Penang Durian Masters Bowling Championship at the Penang Bowl yesterday.

The 35-year-old knocked down 1,318 pins in the first block of six games to take second position among the 70 bowlers in the two-day competition. Shalin is trailing leader Hairon Awang of Singapore by just 14 pins.

The top 24 bowlers after the six-game second block will compete in the second round today with the top three proceeding to the step-ladder finals.

Yesterday, there was no winner for the 300kg durian prize put up by the organisers for a bowler with a perfect game.

Shahrul dedicates national title to wife

Posted: 22 Jun 2013 05:44 PM PDT

PETALING JAYA: Newly-wed Mohd Shahrul Mat Amin won a special prize for his wife, beating a host of established cyclists to win the men's elite title in the National Road Championships in Kangar yesterday.

Mohd Shahrul, who tied the knot on June 1, came out tops in the 198.8km race in 4'39:56.

Making it sweeter was the fact that he beat team-mate Nur Amirul Fakrull Mazuki, the pillar of the Terengganu Cycling Team, and Armed Forces' Adiq Husainie Othman, the leading rider of the China-based Champion System Pro Cycling Team, in the 400m sprint towards the finish line.

Terengganu Cycling Team's Mohd Zamri Salleh, the 2012 national champion, finished fourth.

Shahrul described the success as the highlight of his cycling career.

"It is also a perfect wedding gift for my 24-year-old wife Natasha (Anis Ishak). It was not a planned thing as we were striving to ensure victory for the Terengganu Cycling Team, especially Mohd Harrif Salleh.

"But there was an opportunity for me to win 400m down the finish line and I grabbed it. This win is important for the team," said Shahrul.

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The Star Online: Business

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Wall St. Week Ahead: Stocks face more hurdles after Fed turbulence

Posted: 21 Jun 2013 10:08 PM PDT

NEW YORK: Bargain-hunters beware! Wall Street's 2 percent weekly fall may not be the buying opportunity for stocks that it might seem.

The stock market begins the last week of June still rattled by the U.S. Federal Reserve's plans for reducing its stimulus efforts, called quantitative easing, or QE.

Next week could bring more big intraday swings and volatility as asset managers reevaluate their portfolios to adjust to the new regime of diminishing support from the Fed.

The CBOE Volatility Index .VIX, Wall Street's "fear gauge," rose 10.2 percent this week, ending Friday at 19. The index has risen in four of the past five weeks since Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke first broached the phasing out of stimulus.

"The angst over the Fed is going to cause people to reprice. Hedge funds are part that group. But I don't believe they are the only ones selling," said Ken Polcari, director of the NYSE floor division at O'Neil Securities in New York.

"Hedge funds are nimble, so they are the ones that can move the money around. With the VIX at 20, people get fearful, they want their cash."

Polcari said large asset managers also were likely to be moving around money.

WARNING SIGNS

With the Fed putting the market on notice that it will be weaned from easy money, possibly beginning before long, investors are going to look at the broad picture, which has plenty of warning signs. Economic growth remains spotty, Chinese credit markets are showing stress and interest rates are on the rise.

One reason for equity investors to worry is the second-quarter earnings outlook. Earnings warnings from companies for the second quarter outnumber positive outlooks by 6.5 to 1, the most negative ratio since the first quarter of 2001, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Investors say the impact of Washington's automatic federal spending cuts, known as sequester, is part of the cause.

The sequester has already had an impact on technology companies, and higher tax rates that took effect earlier this year, have hurt consumer businesses.

Among the sectors with the worst outlooks for the second quarter, consumer discretionaries top the list, with 21 warnings and just two positive outlooks. Technology was another, with 27 warnings and 6 positive outlooks, Thomson Reuters data showed.

"This quarter will have the most negative impact from the sequester," said Natalie Trunow, chief investment officer of equities at Calvert Investment Management, which has about $13 billion in assets.

"Combined with the tapering of QE, it could further dampen market sentiment, so we could be in for a little further softness in the equity market for a couple of months."

Among the 10 companies that have already reported for the quarter, a few have been cause for concern. Oracle (ORCL.O) posted disappointing software sales and blamed weaker-than-expected sales in Asia and Latin America. Its shares were down 8.8 percent at $30.30 on Friday.

Federal Express (FDX.N), while it posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit, cut jobs and said it was retiring some older, less efficient airplanes.

FALLING EARNINGS SEEN

Forecasts for S&P 500 earnings in the second quarter have declined sharply, from an April 1 forecast of 6.1 percent growth to this week's forecast of 3.2 percent growth.

If second-quarter earnings come in as forecast, they would mark a drop from the first quarter's 5.4 percent increase in earnings. However, estimates tend to start out high, then get cut as the earnings period nears. Then, typically, companies surpass the lowered forecasts.

"We've had that for several quarters and we could be looking at some of that again," Trunow said.

Banks, which are sensitive to interest rate changes, will be among the earliest companies to report. U.S. Treasuries yields rose to the highest in 22 months as a result of worries about the Fed's cutting back its monthly purchases of bonds. While the reduced stimulus could help if it boosts net interest margins, there are concerns that trading losses could hit some of the biggest banks.

Earnings projections for the rest of the year are better, with third-quarter growth forecast to rise 8.7 percent and fourth-quarter 13.1 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

If the Fed's expectations are correct and the economic data show strength, they will serve as a tailwind for stocks.

"Remember that (Fed) tapering would be a vote of confidence in the market, which would be good news," said David Joy, who helps oversee $708 billion in assets as chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial in Boston.

Despite the week's 2.1 percent loss, the S&P 500 has risen 11.7 percent for the year without a major correction. - Reuters

Facebook admits year-long data breach exposed 6 million users

Posted: 21 Jun 2013 10:06 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook Inc has inadvertently exposed 6 million users' phone numbers and email addresses to unauthorized viewers over the past year, the world's largest social networking company disclosed late Friday.

Facebook blamed the data leaks, which began in 2012, on a technical glitch in its massive archive of contact information collected from its 1.1 billion users worldwide. As a result of the glitch, Facebook users who downloaded contact data for their list of friends obtained additional information that they were not supposed to have.

Facebook's security team was alerted to the bug last week and fixed it within 24 hours. But Facebook did not publicly acknowledge the bug until Friday afternoon, when it published an "important message" on its blog explaining the issue.

A Facebook spokesman said the delay was due to company procedure stipulating that regulators and affected users be notified before making a public announcement.

"We currently have no evidence that this bug has been exploited maliciously and we have not received complaints from users or seen anomalous behavior on the tool or site to suggest wrongdoing," Facebook said on its blog.

While the privacy breach was limited, "it's still something we're upset and embarrassed by, and we'll work doubly hard to make sure nothing like this happens again," it added.

The breach follows recent disclosures that several consumer Internet companies turned over troves of user data to a large-scale electronic surveillance program run by U.S. intelligence.

The companies include Facebook, Google Inc, Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc and Yahoo Inc.

The companies, led by Facebook, successfully negotiated with the U.S. government last week to reveal the approximate number of user information requests that each company had received, including secret national security orders. - Reuters

Michael Dell urges shareholders to support his buyout bid

Posted: 21 Jun 2013 10:04 PM PDT

NEW YORK: Dell Inc's billionaire founder Michael Dell said he would oppose any leveraged recapitalization of the company and called on stakeholders to vote in favor of his buyout offer, ahead of a shareholder meeting next month.

Dell argued his case in a presentation filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, saying that keeping any part of the company public while it transformed itself would hurt Dell's stock price.

That in turn would threaten customer perception and make it more difficult to keep employees, he said.

If his buyout proposal fails to sway shareholders, he reiterated that he will remain with the company but said he "will also oppose the kind of imprudent leveraged recapitalization that has been suggested by certain other parties."

Activist shareholder Carl Icahn, who says Dell's offer undervalues the company, on Tuesday promised shareholders that the company would buy back up to $16 billion of stock if they joined his campaign to stop the computer maker from going private.

Dell could fund a tender offer for its own shares with debt financing, Icahn said.

Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake want shareholders to accept a $24.4 billion bid, aimed at taking the company private while it transform itself into a technology consultant for large companies, along the lines of International Business Machines Corp. - Reuters

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The Star Online: Nation

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Black 505: Final Pakatan rally before 13th Parliament opens, one minor scuffle but no arrests made

Posted: 22 Jun 2013 08:41 AM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: Protesters gathered at Padang Merbuk for Pakatan Rakyat's final Black 505 rally ahead of the first session of the 13th Parliament term, despite police warnings that it was illegal.

The crowd, which gathered as early as 9.30am at Padang Merbok, started to grow in numbers only after noon as various groups marched to the field from six gathering points in the city.

Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor had earlier paid a visit to Padang Merbuk before the start of the rally and asked participants to gather at the Merdeka Stadium instead, but the rally proceeded there as originally planned.

Opposition leaders seen at the rally were DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang, PKR deputy president Azmin Ali, PAS central committee member Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad and PKR supreme council member Datuk Johari Abdul, among others.

Lim and Bersih 2.0 steering committee co-chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreevenasan were among the key speakers at the rally before PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wrapped it up.

Most of the crowd dispersed by about 6pm but some of the participants, who had set up tents in the field before the rally, vowed to camp there until the opening of the Dewan Rakyat.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Mohmad Salleh said the rally was largely incident-free, except for a scuffle involving two City Hall enforcement workers who tried to take down the tents.

The police allowed the participants to gather without any hindrance, despite earlier warnings of it being illegal.

No arrests were made at the rally.

The rally was held to call for the immediate resignation of all Election Commission (EC) commissioners, re-elections to be held at least 30 parliamentary seats and to stop the EC from conducting redelineation exercise or review electoral laws pending appointment of a new commissioners.

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Malaysian student killed when 4WD plunges into ravine in Jordan, four others injured

Posted: 22 Jun 2013 08:00 AM PDT

PETALING JAYA: A Malaysian student was killed while four others were injured in Jordan when a four-wheel drive vehicle they were in plunged into a ravine between Petra and Aqabah, about 320km from the capital Amman at around 5pm (Jordanian time) on Friday.

The deceased was identified as Sumaiyah Romli, a first-year astronomy and physics student at the University College London in Britain.

The four injured students are Muhammad Nazirul Mubin Nasruddin, a third-year economics and Islamic banking student at Yarmouk University in Jordan; Nur Ili Dayana Mazlan, a fourth-year student at the London School of Economics; Mohamad Shukri Alias, a third-year Islamic studies student at Yarmouk University and Humairak Ibrahim, a third-year economics and Islamic banking student at Yarmouk University.

Sumaiyah, the deceased, and Muhammad Nazirul are Public Service Department (JPA) scholars while Nur Ili Dayana is a Bank Negara Malaysia scholar.

The injured students were brought to the Queen Rania Abdullah hospital in Petra for treatment.

The Malaysian Education Department and the JPA are in the process of arranging the return of the Sumaiyah's remains to Malaysia.

Haze: Muar API reading reaches a high of 453

Posted: 22 Jun 2013 07:02 AM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: The Air Pollutant Index (API) in Muar reached hazardous level with a reading of 453 at 4pm Saturday, with air quality deteriorating from the 373 reading recorded earlier at 11am.

Muar Natural Disaster (Air Pollution and Haze) Committee chairman Abdul Rahman Mohamed Dewam said the air quality in the district had continued deteriorating as the reading increased from 276 at 7am to 312 (8am), 338 (9am) and 360 (10am).

According to the Department of Environment's (DOE) website, unhealthy air quality was also recorded in 10 areas across the country, including Kota Tinggi with an API reading of 189, Larkin Lama (167), Pasir Gudang (187), Bandaraya Melaka (188) and Bukit Rambai (170).

Thirty-nine other areas registered moderate API readings, while two areas had good air quality.

A reading of between 0-50 is categorised as good, 51 to 100 (moderate), 101-200 (unhealthy), 201 to 300 (very unhealthy), and 300 and above hazardous.

The DOE website did not provide an API reading for Muar on as at 5pm Saturday.

In SHAH ALAM, Selangor DOE director Siti Zaleha Ibrahim said the air quality in many areas in the state worsened on Saturday but the situation was expected to improve in a few days.

"Continuous monitoring will be carried out until the API reading recorded a healthy air quality, especially in Port Klang which is nearest to Sumatra. The DOE will take action against any parties violating the regulations on open burning," she said.

Two areas in Selangor which recorded unhealthy air quality were Port Klang (145) and Banting (107). - Bernama

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The Star Online: Metro: Central

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Families live in makeshift tents as MPS declares flats unsafe

Posted: 22 Jun 2013 06:40 AM PDT

LIFE cannot get any worse for 80 families from the Taman Permata low-cost flats in Dengkil.

They have been living in tents put up in the carpark area for over 10 days now, after the Sepang Municipal Council (MPSp) declared the units unsafe for occupation. Some have been housed at a hall nearby.

The residents said the units had cracks all over, tiles were coming off and that the ceilings were on the verge of collapsing.

The former estate workers and their families were relocated to the low-cost units about 14 years ago when their estates were acquired for the development of Putrajaya.

Public Works Institute of Malaysia (Ikram) engineers have been carrying out checks at the site daily since the building was deemed unsafe.

"We are living in misery, especially the older folks and children. It has been 11 days now and we still do not know what is going to happen to us. We are suffering from the heat and being bitten by mosquitoes," said K. Mathavi, 65, adding that the situation worsened when it rained.

M. Saraswathy, 49, said those affected should be kept informed and told when the problem would be resolved.

"Life has been getting worse after we were relocated from the estates.

"We have been living in terrible conditions and now even the flats have been found unsafe for occupation," she said, adding that most of their belongings were still in the units.

Saraswathy said they went back to the flats every morning and evening to bathe and change.

D. Jothy, 57, said there were cracks all over her unit and that the ceiling was on the verge of collapsing.

Just like in the other units, she said the flooring in her unit had also cracked, with wall tiles in the kitchen breaking off.

Taman Permata Residents Association secretary K. Ramadass said 400 families had moved into the flats from four estates — Prang Besar, Sedgeley, Medengley and Galloway, in 1999.

In 2011, Ramadass said former state executive councillor Dr Xavier Jeyakumar, who visited the flats after the residents had expressed fear over the safety of the building, had pledged to relocate them to a new site.

Dr Xavier, he said, had promised that the state would build low-cost terrace houses for the 400 families.

"However, we have not heard anything from the state yet,'' he said.

MPS wants Batu Caves temple committee to submit building plans

Posted: 22 Jun 2013 06:40 AM PDT

THE Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) wants to help legalise all the structures in the Batu Caves temple compound and has no plans to demolish any, said its president Mohd Azizi Mohd Zain at the fullboard meeting yesterday.

The situation arose after MPS had issued a stop-work order for a cable car project in Batu Caves on June 6.

The council had said the structures must be legalised before any new project could be carried out at the premises.

Azizi urged the Batu Caves temple committee to submit building plans for all the 20 structures identified by MPS.

He said the move was to ensure the safety of visitors to the temple.

"MPS has no plans to demolish the temple, we just want to ensure everything is done legally and that safety is not compromised.

"I understand that they may not have all the relevant documents as the temple is over 100 years old. However, they must submit building plans for those built within the past 10 years," said Azizi, adding that the state wanted the problem resolved in six months.

Aziz said under the council's bylaws, it must ensure all the structures within the temple had the stipulated buffer zones, soil study is conducted for all buildings and mitigation plans are in place for the existing buildings and structures. He said the council has to give attention to the entire legalisation process to ensure the building or structure was safe and could cater to a large crowd, that rockfall barriers were provided as well as verify and validate all the newly-built stalls.

"We do not want any mishaps to take place," he said, adding that the temple committee could contact the council for any form of assistance.

In response to claims that the temple committee had submitted several building plans, Azizi said some documentation had been submitted but were not complete.

"They should engage a professional consultant and prepare building plans for the 20 structures," he said.

Earlier, Selangor MIC Youth leader M. Shanker Raj Ayanger handed over a memorandum to Azizi, urging him to lift the stop-work order on the cable car project.

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The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

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The Star Online: Entertainment: Music


J.Lo receives star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 08:30 PM PDT

[unable to retrieve full-text content]"This all feels, I don't know, kind of surreal, but so real. It's awesome," Lopez says of the honour.

Electric Az orchestra

Posted: 21 Jun 2013 02:19 AM PDT

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Guitarist Az Samad has plugged into the world of loops and overdubs on his latest outing.
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The Star Online: Metro: South & East

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A 79-year-old lady donates land to Hospis Pahang

Posted: 21 Jun 2013 05:45 PM PDT

KUANTAN: A septuagenarian has donated a piece of land to Hospis Pahang, which the organisation plans to use to build a permanent home in the future.

The 0.8ha plot donated by Deivanai Meyappan, 79, was part of a 4ha land in Bandar Damansara she had intended to give away to charities.

Hospis Pahang president Dr Philip Chai Feng Yih said a board of trustees would be established to oversee the land's development and ensure it was utilised appropriately.

"Currently, we have shortlisted a few candidates and will approach them soon. The land will only be legally transferred to Hospis as soon as the trustees are elected," he said after receiving the land's legal document from Deivanai in a simple ceremony here recently.

Dr Chai said the tentative plan for the land includes building a permanent home for Hospis Pahang.

"If our resource and finance allow, we may initiate a daycarecentre, activity centre and training for carers and volunteers in future," he said, adding that it was a very meaningful contribution from Deivanai.

MIC branch leader shot by two gunmen outside his home

Posted: 21 Jun 2013 05:46 PM PDT

BATU PAHAT: For 58-year-old B. Manickam, the safety of his nine-year-old grandson was constantly on his mind, despite being shot twice in the abdomen during a shooting spree outside his home in Yong Peng.

He said the last thing he could remember was seeing his grandson running and hiding behind the tyres of a four-wheel drive parked outside their home when gunmen started shooting at him at about 10.15pm.

Manickam was hit twice in the abdomen while his friend, in his 30s, who was with him was hit at least four times in the hand and legs during the shooting spree in Taman Desa.

"I was talking to my friend and my grandson outside the house when we heard loud noises similar to fire crackers.

"I turned around and saw two men on a motorcycle shooting at us while riding on their motorcycles. We could not do much and then I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen," he said when met at the hospital.

Manickam, who is a MIC branch leader, said that he was worried for his grandson and was happy that he managed to escape to safety by hiding behind the car tyre.

"I am glad that the car also acted as a shield to prevent some of the bullets from hitting other family members inside the house," he added.

He was rushed to the Batu Pahat Hospital and doctors removed at least one bullet slug from him while the other bullet had gone through and out of the body.

The other friend was also discharged soon after as the bullets had gone through.

Manickam said that so far, he was unsure of the motive behind the shooting as this was the first time such a thing had happened to him.

Meanwhile, police have arrested two men including a MIC branch leader in connection with the shooting.

Both men had been remanded to help police in their investigations.

Man claims spiritual healing for various ailments

Posted: 21 Jun 2013 05:46 PM PDT

JASIN: He may be a school dropout but his skills at spiritual healing made up for his academic shortcomings. Even the rich and famous make a beeline to his home in Kesang Tua, near here, to seek a cure from K.M. Thinageswar Sivaachaariyar for various ailments — including tumours and gangrene feet.

In 2011, he reportedly carried out a live open-heart surgery using the ancient Ayurvedic methods before hundreds of people in Colombo, earning him recognition by spiritual practitioners in Sri Lanka and a doctorate by the University of Colombo.

Thinageswar, 28, said when he was 15, his mother suffered from acute diabetes and, determined to cure her, quit school before he took his PMR examination and took up studies in spiritual healing instead.

"My four elder siblings went on to pursue higher eduction and I was considered a 'black sheep' in the family.

"However, I have no qualms about not going for tertiary education and I am grateful I was able to help cure my 70-year-old mother through spiritual healing," he said, adding his 'patients' come from as far as Singapore and Australia and even come to seek his advice.

Thinageswar said he first learnt the art of spiritual healing from a local priest and then pursued the knowledge further in Kerala, India and Surabaya, Indonesia.

"Research shows that up to 80% of our problems in life are rooted in the spiritual dimension.

"Spiritual healing is about diagnosis and overcoming the root causes of medical problems by spiritual means," he said, adding that this is done by 'sixth sense' techniques.

Thinageswar said the accuracy of a diagnosis vary according the healer's 'sixth sense' ability and spiritual level.

"Spiritual healing is achieved through a myriad of methods, such as using holy water, holy ashes and mantras," he added.

Thinageswar said the treatment process involves the application of the chaitanya, a Sanskrit wordmeaning 'divine consciousness' while the healing after the surgery process take place through the 'absolute cosmic water (Apa)' and 'fire (Tej)' principles.

He said foreigners were willing to pay thousands of ringgit for the removal of tumours and to save their limbs from being amputated.

He gets a steady stream of visitors. including politicians and businessmen, who sought his expertise in treating an array of health-related complications at his corner lot terrace home.

"I never imagined my passion for spiritual healing would make me popular.

"Today, those with brain tumours and gangrene feet, due to diabetes, are coming to me to get alternative medicine without having to go through excruciating surgery," he said.

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