Isnin, 18 November 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

Siblings overcome odds in kidney transplant

Posted:

WHEN his elder sister's kidneys both failed in 2009, operations manager Yow Kok Kheong wanted to give her one of his.

Then antibody tests showed they were not a match.

But early this year, against all odds, 38-year-old teacher Yow Sok Fun successfully received a kidney from her brother, 35.

This was after Singapore General Hospital (SGH) had devised a way to condition the patient's body to accept an incompatible transplant.

The public hospital now joins two others in offering kidney transplants from patients who have incompatible antibodies, though their methods may differ slightly.

National University Hospital has performed 14 such procedures since 2009, while Mount Elizabeth Hospital has had at least seven in the past five years.

For SGH, Yow was their first.

The latest development offers yet another avenue for patients who have trouble finding a suitable donor, said surgeon Terence Kee, who heads SGH's renal transplantation programme.

"We can re-open the transplant option to patients who are on the waiting list for a kidney," he said.

Kidneys from deceased donors are getting harder to come by.

Figures from the National Organ Transplant Unit showed that the number of deceased donors hit a five-year low last year at only 23. This is down from 36 in the preceding year.

But the waiting list for kidneys is many times longer, with more than 400 requiring one each year.

The average wait is about nine years.

"Chances are bleak for these patients," said Dr Kee, who operated on the siblings in January. "Still, we always try to find a compatible donor first. The new protocol is the last resort."

About two years ago, the Yow siblings had failed the "T-cell cross match" test that determines if there are antibodies that will cause rejection.

Yow, who is married with two school-going children, had very high levels of problematic antibodies due to previous pregnancies and blood transfusions.

In such situations, doctors normally will not proceed with the transplant due to the high risk of rejection – more than 80%.

But the hospital, for the first time, tried an approach in which she received regular infusions of a blood product in the months leading up to the surgery, to reduce the amount of "bad antibodies".

The blood product, called intravenous immunoglobulin, is extracted from donated blood. One of its functions is to help "switch off" the production of the bad antibodies. After this, Yow's blood was filtered through a machine to remove the antibodies.

Dr Kee said not everyone is suitable for the latest approach. For instance, they have to be healthy enough for the blood filtering procedure, which may cause low blood pressure. This can in turn trigger a heart attack or stroke in vulnerable patients.

Since the surgery, Yow has recovered without complications. Initially, she had hesitated due to the higher risks involved.

"With surgery, there is always the chance that you will die during surgery," she said.

"But there was also a very high risk that the transplant will fail – which meant my brother's kidney would be wasted."

But they decided to go ahead, said her brother, partly because dialysis had not been easy on his sister.

The thrice-weekly sessions tired her out, plus there were strict dietary limits - only four cups of water were allowed a day.

The constant use of needles meant her veins got blocked, so regular ballooning procedures were needed to re-open the vessels. "It was worth taking the risk, a no-brainer," he said. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Online harassment law to be tabled next year

Posted:

THE Ministry of Law is preparing legislation to better protect against online harrassment that will be tabled by early next year, said Law Minister K. Shanmugam.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines at a conference on harassment, Shanmugam said that the Law Ministry had been looking at the issue for about a year and a half and has been studying legislation in other countries and conducting internal discussions.

Shanmugam cited a recent Reach survey which showed that the public found the the law inadequate in dealing with online harassment. Over 80% of the more than 1,000 Singaporean residents surveyed felt that online harassment is a serious issue, and a similar number indicated they wanted tougher measures in place to deal with harassment, both online and off-line.

He also cited a 2012 Microsoft survey that found that Singapore had the second highest rate of online bullying worldwide out of 25 countries surveyed among youths aged eight to 17.

Together with China, which had the worst online bullying rates, Singapore was the only other country surveyed where online bullying was more pervasive than in the real world.

"I am concerned that our children seem to be the victims," he said.

"If so many children are impacted, I think later on it will have a deep impact on society as they become adults. It is for us to try and step in and try and help them," he said.

Shanmugam stressed that he preferred to have the law step in only as a last resort, but that they were necessary to deal with the most egregious of cases, such as when the victim feels threatened or abused.

"In the end there will be, I don't know, 5%, 8% of society for whom these norms don't matter if they can get away with it.

"And that's really what the law is looking at," he said. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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Toronto council curbs Mayor Ford's powers after chaotic debate
Nepal votes to end political gridlock
Argentina's Kicillof, architect of YPF seizure, named economy minister

Toronto council curbs Mayor Ford's powers after chaotic debate

Posted:

TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's City Council voted overwhelmingly at a raucous meeting on Monday to strip embattled Mayor Rob Ford of more of his authority in a move Ford denounced as a coup d'etat while promising political foes election battle next year to rival the Gulf War.

Ford, who has been under fire for his drug use and drinking, as well as the way he has handled the accusations, vowed in an interview to give up alcohol and lose weight.

Earlier at a tumultuous City Council meeting, members voted to slash Ford's office budget and transfer some of his powers to Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly, among other limitations, by a vote of 36-5.

"This is a coup d'etat," Ford told council, denouncing the motion.

Ford intends to seek re-election next year and warned councillors that the campaign would rival the 1991 Gulf War.

"This, folks, reminds of when I was watching with my brother when Saddam (Hussein) attacked Kuwait. And President Bush said, 'I warn you, I warn you, do not (attack Kuwait).' Well, folks, if you think American-style politics is nasty, you guys have just attacked Kuwait."

On Friday, the council had suspended Ford's authority to dismiss the deputy mayor and the heads of council committees and removed his powers to act during emergencies.

Ford has admitted to smoking crack cocaine, buying illegal drugs and driving after drinking alcohol but has ignored calls to resign.

In an interview with CBC on Monday after the City Council action, Ford said he had not had a drop of alcohol in three weeks and vowed to stop drinking completely.

"Finished," he said when asked by host Peter Mansbridge about his drinking. "I've had a 'come to Jesus moment' if you want to call it that."

Ford also said he planned to lose 30 pounds within five months.

Monday's City Council meeting turned into a spectacle as Ford stalked around the meeting room, getting into an angry verbal exchange with gallery spectators, some of whom shouted "Shame! Shame!" at him. At one point, while running across the room, he collided with Councillor Pam McConnell, almost knocking her over. He later apologized.

Ford also mimed drinking and driving - apparently a jab at a councillor whose license was briefly suspended after a roadside breathalyzer test. A video clip spread quickly on social media.

APPEAL TO DEPUTY MAYOR

The council had been looking for ways to neutralize Ford since he will not quit and the council cannot remove him or strip him of roles laid out in provincial law, such as representing the city at events.

"What we're doing is saying to our deputy mayor, please represent our city until 2014, because we trust you more than we trust the mayor," Councillor Karen Stintz told reporters before the vote. Stintz, once a Ford ally, now plans to run against him in the October 2014 election.

Ford's lawyer, George Rust-D'Eye, told Reuters ahead of Monday's vote that if the mayor cannot carry out roles mandated by provincial law because of the council's decisions, a court could intervene. He reiterated his position to reporters after the vote.

Ford, who told Fox News that he hopes to run for prime minister one day, recently admitted he has driven after consuming alcohol. And in 1999 he was arrested for impaired driving while on vacation in Florida and pleaded no contest.

The mayor's brother, Doug Ford, - who is also a city councillor, meanwhile, brought a motion that was later ruled out of order that would have called a snap mayoral election, something the mayor also has sought.

The revelations about Ford, which started in May when two media outlets said they had seen video of him smoking from what appeared to be a crack pipe, have thrust Toronto into the international spotlight.

A new television show featuring the mayor and his brother debuted on Monday evening on Canada's right-wing Sun News Network.

During the one-hour show, the mayor and his brother took recorded questions from viewers and defended his recent performance as mayor, but revealed nothing new about the scandal.

(Reporting by Allison Martell, additional reporting by Cameron French; Editing by Janet Guttsman, Jeffrey Benkoe, Peter Galloway, Bill Trott and Cynthia Osterman)

Nepal votes to end political gridlock

Posted:

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal started voting on Tuesday to elect a special assembly which will draft a constitution aimed at ending years of political instability after the abolition of the monarchy, but the vote could be split and leave Nepal facing further turmoil.

Nepal's neighbours, India and China, have grown increasingly concerned about its prolonged struggle to build a stable republic to replace the centuries old monarchy that was toppled by a 10-year Maoist revolt.

The fear is that the small nation of nearly 27 million people dependent on tourism, remittances and aid would weaken further and become a haven for militants and criminal gangs.

A previous attempt at writing a constitution after a 2008 election failed with political parties unable to agree on the form of government and the number of states to be carved out of the ethnically diverse country.

Nepal had five governments in as many years as power-hungry politicians formed and broke alliances.

Soldiers stood guard at Phailamchuli on Tuesday, a polling booth outside Kathmandu, as voters lined up hours early to elect the 601-member assembly that will act as a parliament and establish a government until a charter is ready.

"We are giving the politicians a second chance," said Lal Bahadur Lama, 58, as he emerged from the polling station.

But some fear further political instability.

"The stalemate is not going to end anytime soon," said Bimal Koirala who served as a chief secretary or the highest ranking bureaucrat. "All that the political parties are interested in is to rush to power."

The election is being fought by Maoists who joined the political mainstream after signing a peace deal in 2006, the oldest Nepali Congress party, and scores of other parties including a royalist group that wants to reinstate a monarchy.

A 33-party alliance led by a breakaway Maoist faction has called for a boycott of the election and at least 30 people have been wounded in small bomb blasts in the run-up to the vote.

Streets were deserted on Tuesday as the government ordered all vehicles off the roads for election day.

"We have to give a message to the international community that Nepal is able to draft a new constitution," President Ram Baran Yadav said in a statement late on Monday.

Counting of votes will begin on Wednesday, but a clear picture is expected to emerge in a week as votes from remote parts of the mountainous nation are counted.

(Writing by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Michael Perry)

Argentina's Kicillof, architect of YPF seizure, named economy minister

Posted:

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez burst back on the scene on Monday after a five-week absence following surgery to treat a head injury, naming as economy minister the government's point man in its 2012 seizure of the country's biggest oil company.

The promotion of leftist economist Axel Kicillof, who had been deputy economy minister, was announced by a government spokesman in a televised address minutes after Fernandez appeared on TV for the first time since early October.

Kicillof, a charismatic and polarizing figure, steered the administration's expropriation of a controlling stake in energy company YPF from its former parent company, Spain's Repsol.

The takeover enraged Argentina's trading partners from the European Union, but was welcomed by many Argentines as a defence of national strategic interests.

Known for his fiery speeches in defence of Fernandez's interventionist policies, Kicillof spent most of his career in academia, giving classes and writing about the theories of economists such as John Maynard Keynes and Karl Marx.

He replaces Hernan Lorenzino, who was named ambassador to the European Union.

Fernandez had an operation on October 8 to remove blood that had pooled on the surface of her brain after she fell and bumped her head. Her absence until earlier Monday evening had left a five-week political vacuum in Latin America's No. 3 economy.

"Thank you ... to the thousands of Argentines who have been praying for me," a smiling Fernandez said in a televised address. Sitting on a sofa, she appeared healthy. On a table was a vase of red roses she said had been sent by a well-wisher.

She briefly held a small white dog she said was sent to her by one of the brothers of Hugo Chavez, the late left-wing leader of Venezuela and a political ally of Fernandez.

Her absence had been conspicuous in a country accustomed to her centralized leadership style and frequent speeches.

Her office said her agenda on Monday was confined to meetings with senior officials. She has not been cleared for air travel and is scheduled for another medical checkup on December 9.

Also on Monday, Argentina designated Carlos Fabrega as the country's new central bank chief, replacing Mercedes Marcó del Pont, and Carlos Casamiquela as agriculture minister, replacing Norberto Yauhar.

Chaco provincial Governor Jorge Capitanich will replace Juan Manuel Abal Medina as Cabinet chief. The newly named officials are scheduled to be sworn in on Wednesday.

APPOINTMENT 'WON'T BE WELCOMED BY MARKETS'

As she enters the final two years of her second term, Fernandez faces possible new protests from farmers who say her policies hurt their profits. High inflation, estimated by private analysts at 25 percent, rising crime, an overvalued currency and dwindling foreign reserves are also concerns.

Fernandez's supporters suffered heavy losses in congressional elections on October 27 that ended her chances of securing a change to the constitution that would have enabled her to run for a third term in 2015.

"The appointment of Kicillof is not going to be welcomed by the markets," said Ignacio Labaqui, local analyst for New York-based consultancy Medley Global Advisors.

"It confirms that government policy will not be altered by the results of the midterm election," he said. "It increases the likelihood of a dual exchange-rate scheme, which Kicillof has been advocating, and we can expect that the central bank will continue to be the main source of financing for the Treasury."

Despite his youthful appearance - local media sometimes make as much of his sideburns as of his policymaking - Kicillof is an old-school leftist who shuns the tenets of 21st century globalism and believes Argentina must find its own way to industrial prominence.

(Additional reporting by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Business

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Berjaya Auto zooms past expectations in listing
DiGi expects M2M mobile service SME subscribers to double in 12 months
Asian shares climb to 2-week high on sexy China reforms

Berjaya Auto zooms past expectations in listing

Posted:

PETALING JAYA: Berjaya Auto Bhd's listing blew past expectations, opening at RM1.55 – more than double its initial public offering (IPO) price – despite concerns about its liquidity.

Exuberant trading sent its shares to a high of RM2.20 yesterday, far exceeding the issue price of 70 sen, before settling at RM1.82 for a market capitalisation of RM1.56bil.

Some 72 million shares changed hands in the counter, making it the day's most active.

The stock also soared past projections by analysts, who had set a target price of 92 sen for the Mazda car retailer.

"The share price has run far ahead of fundamentals. And it is too tightly held," commented an analyst.

Berjaya Auto has a free float of 25% – the minimum required public shareholding spread on Bursa Malaysia – and did not issue any new shares for its IPO, but this proved no deterrent to investors.

At yesterday's close, Berjaya Auto was valued at 24 times forward earnings, trumping MBM Resources Bhd's nine times, UMW Holdings Bhd's 15 times, Tan Chong Motor Holdings Bhd's 12 times and DRB-Hicom Bhd's 13 times, as well as the sector average of 11 times.

Chief executive officer Datuk Ben Yeoh Choon San told reporters after the listing ceremony that Berjaya Auto saw potential for double-digit growth in total industry volume (TIV) in the Philippines from about 4% now.

This compares to a TIV growth of 4% over the next two years in Malaysia's saturated passenger vehicle market. Berjaya Auto has a market share of about 1.5% in Malaysia, where TIV growth is expected to remain in single-digit territory.

Its Philippine operations, via 60%-owned Berjaya Auto Philippines, has already contributed to 5.2% of group sales despite starting in January.

In the longer term, Berjaya Auto is aiming for revenue from the Philippines to increase to 15%-20% of group turnover, Yeoh said. The company is the sole importer and distributor of Mazda cars there.

Analysts say the Philippines is a strong growth market for Berjaya Auto, given its huge population of 106 million people and low car ownership of only 3.2%.

Sales could expand as much as 200%, 20% and 10% in the financial years ending April 2014 through 2016, Hong Leong Investment Bank Research said in a note to clients earlier this month.

Yeoh also said that under the Asean Free Trade Area, manufacturers were able to move goods more easily within the region, opening new export markets for Berjaya Auto.

"But we would focus on the Philippines and Thailand for the moment," Yeoh said.

The firm currently exports its locally assembled Mazda CX5 to Thailand.

The Mazda CX5 sport utility vehicle is Berjaya Auto's bestseller, with a backlog of 3,000 units and a waiting time of up to six months, according to Yeoh.

"We plan to launch the new completely-built-up Mazda 3 next year to test the market before embarking on the completely-knocked-down version," he added.

Locally assembled cars make up 60% of Berjaya Auto's volume.

The IPO raised RM58mil from an offer for sale of 82.76 million shares. Most of the proceeds will be used for working capital.

Berjaya Corp Bhd remains Berjaya Auto's single largest shareholder post-listing with a 68% interest, followed by Yeoh with 7.1%.

DiGi expects M2M mobile service SME subscribers to double in 12 months

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd expects to double the take-up rate of its newly launched machine to machine (M2M) mobile service to 30% of its small and medium enterprise (SME) customers in 12 months from 15% currently.

DiGi chief marketing officer Albern Murty said on Tuesday the new service would allow business users to improve efficiency and reduce cost savings.

"This service will help customers have access to real-time information that was not initially available," he said at the launch of the M2M service.

Plans for the M2M service starts from as low as RM8 per SIM card per month, with rates depending on the level of services required by the customer.

Asian shares climb to 2-week high on sexy China reforms

Posted:

TOKYO: Asian shares edged to a two-week high on Tuesday, adding to the previous day's hefty gains on China's economic reform plans, while the dollar was hobbled by expectations the US Federal Reserve will keep its stimulus a little longer.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.2%, building on Monday's 1.4% rally fed by a sharp jump in Chinese stocks and heading for a fourth straight day of gains.

"China's reform pledge was sexier than perceived, bringing risk back into play in emerging markets including South Korea which is still comparably low valued," said Kim Yong-goo, a market analyst at Samsung Securities.

China's CSI300 Index surged 3.3% on Monday, its biggest one-day rise in two months, to hit a four-week peak. The index took a breather on Tuesday, slipping 0.4%.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei fell 0.8%, further moving away from a six-month high hit on Friday, with a trader saying domestic investors continued to cash in recent gains.

The yen was up 0.4% at 99.64 yen to the dollar , adding to a 0.2% rise overnight to end a two-day run of losses.

The euro rose 0.1% to US$1.3515, not far from a two-week high of US$1.3542 reached on Monday. Against a basket of major currencies, the dollar eased 0.2% to 80.661, languishing near a more than one-week low of 80.565 reached on Monday.

As the dollar weakened on expectations that the Fed will continue its bond-buying campaign under incoming chief Janet Yellen, the 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield slipped to below 2.7%.

Investors remained on guard for any clues as to when the U.S. central bank will start unwinding its US$85bil-a-month stimulus programme, although many in the markets now see any move unlikely until March.

A number of Fed speakers offered more insights into the central bank's stimulus on Monday. The latest was Charles Plosser, president of the Philadelphia Fed, who said improved economic and labour market conditions suggest the Fed should set a fixed dollar amount on its current bond-buying programme and end the programme when that amount is reached.

William Dudley, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said he was becoming "more hopeful" about the US economy.

WATCHING SIGNS

Investors will turn more cautious early next year as they try to front-run when the Fed will start unwinding its stimulus, said Evan Lucas, market strategist at IG in Melbourne.

"The markets will start to front run the Fed like they did in August leading into the September meeting," he wrote in a note. "Come late January I suspect there will be a change of sentiment from fund managers and hedge funds alike as they start to predict the end and that will affect the current run."

When that happens, emerging assets would likely come under pressure after being buoyed by cheap money from central banks over the past few years.

The Indonesian rupiah was up 0.2% at 11,600 per dollar on Tuesday, still not far from a 4-1/2 year low of 11,670 touched last week.

Overnight, U.S. stocks were mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 ended lower while the Dow Jones industrial average eked out a slight gain but failed to close above its milestone level of 16,000, as stocks sold off late in the session after cautious comments by activist investor Carl Ichan on the equities market.

US S&P 500 E-mini futures were little changed in Asian trade.

Among commodities, US crude prices held steady at about US$93 a barrel, having fallen 0.9% overnight to near a 5-1/2 month low of US$92.51 touched last Thursday.

Gold stabilised at around $1,273 an ounce after sliding 1.2% in the previous session – Reuters.

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The Star Online: Metro: Central

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Lee: ‘Poverty line’ is obsolete

Posted:

SINGAPORE is past the point where a poverty line is useful, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong indicated yesterday, adding that the groups of needy now take shifting and multi-faceted forms.

Hence, the Government's kueh lapis (layered cake) approach to social assistance, he said, summoning a metaphor that Minister of Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing used to describe the multi-layered help it provides to those in need.

Speaking to reporters after a Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka, Lee weighed in for the first time on recent calls to establish a poverty line in Singapore, after Hong Kong did so in September.

He said that a poverty line like the World Bank's measure of US$1.50 (RM4.80) a day was irrelevant in Singapore as there are no "dead poor" here, by which he means those who are starving and unsheltered.

Rather, the poor here range from those going through temporary setbacks to families suddenly felled by illness, to the needy elderly and low-skilled workers.

Each of these groups needs a different sort and scale of help, and often, "men and women of good sense" are required to assess what assistance is desirable and necessary in each case.

This cannot be accomplished by a rigid poverty line, he said, which might be polarising and leave some outside the definition of poor.

"To say as an ideological matter that 'I must have a proper definition, and I want to reduce this group to zero' – I think we have moved beyond that point and I don't think that a definition will help us to improve our schemes," he said.

Lee also dismissed suggestions that a poverty line would help "focus minds" on the issue of the poor in Singapore.

"What is important to us is not about whether we can find a definition with which we can focus minds on the problem, because our minds are focused on the problem," he said.

There are many people doing social work of various kinds in Singapore, he added, a diversity of effort that could actually be hindered by the establishment of an all-encompassing poverty line.

The topic dovetailed with discussions at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, whose theme was "Growth with Equity".

During retreat sessions with leaders of the 53-member grouping, Lee set out Singapore's approach to sustainable development, explaining why it is careful to spend within its means and not provide a false sense of well-being through deficit spending.

While it is right for governments to shield their people from the uncertainties and inequalities of the globalised world, it is hard to translate "noble intentions" and social spending into real gains, he said.

In some countries, heavy public spending has not solved the problems of unemployment and a lack of competitiveness but has led to growing debt, he said.

Singapore's approach is to live within its means so as not to leave the next generation indebted, pursue long-term growth strategies rather than deficit spending, and protect the environment, he summed up.

Later, he told reporters that the biennial Commonwealth meet remained a valuable point of contact between Singapore and countries in Africa and the Caribbean that it did not have many direct links with.

On the sidelines of the two-day summit, Lee met his counterparts from Malta, Rwanda, Tanzania and Vanuatu for bilateral discussions.

He also congratulated Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa on a summit well-hosted.

Thousands rally in Australia for climate action

Posted:

SYDNEY: Thousands of people rallied across Australia calling for stronger action on climate change, days after new conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott moved to abolish a carbon tax.

Activist group GetUp, which organised the National Day of Climate Action, estimated that more than 60,000 people turned out at protests.

"From remote country towns to the big cities, Australians have come to their own conclusions after our hottest year on record. And they want action," GetUp national director Sam Mclean told reporters.

Australia has just experienced the hottest 12 months ever recorded, which coupled with massive bushfires in New South Wales state last month has inflamed debate about whether there is a link to climate change. — AFP

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The Star Online: Metro: South & East

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The Star Online: Metro: South & East

Lee: ‘Poverty line’ is obsolete
Thousands rally in Australia for climate action
‘Batman’ gains greater notoriety than his crimes