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The Star Online: Metro: South & East

Hard work pays off for UTM grads
Skudai fire victims receive aid to ease their burden
Authorities to come down hard on illegal gambling outlets

Posted: 29 Sep 2011 06:33 PM PDT

JOHOR BARU: A mother-of-one has no qualms about juggling between her postgraduate studies, work and family's welfare in order to achieve her dreams.

Toh Wen Yee, 29, who obtained her PhD in Polymer Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), said that it took a great deal of will power and motivation for her to complete her research paper.

"I must admit that it is not easy to allocate time for my family, take care of my two-year-old son, teach tuition to secondary school students and at the same time, keep my eyes on the goal," she said when met at UTM's best postgraduate student award here recently.

Toh added that she felt thankful towards her husband for being understanding and was her pillar of strength.

"Although there were conflict of time and other people's opinions, my husband always told me to be patient and advised me to get affected by such factors," she said, adding that she sings to her son to release her stress.

Toh, who now is now lecturing at Republic Polytechnic in Singapore, said that the moment she received her PhD certificate, she felt that all the hardships were worth it in the end.

Another recipient Sultan Noman Qasem, 31, who won the award for best student in the faculty of Computer Science and Information System for PhD in Computer Science, said his biggest inspiration was his wife back home in Yemen.

"My wife has been patient with me despite me taking five years to compete my postgraduate studies and I am glad that my efforts had bore fruit," he said.

Toh and Sultan were among 74 students, including 22 international students from Iran, Libya, Nigeria and Somalia, who received the award from 15 faculties in the university.

Meanwhile, school of graduate studies dean Prof Dr Rose Alinda Alias said that for the fourth consecutive year, UTM had given 12 awards to the scholars in recognition of excellent graduate students.

"The recipients were mainly selected by the respective faculties based on a few criteria including the highest cumulative point average (CPA) and result for the research programmes," she said in her speech during the ceremony.

Skudai fire victims receive aid to ease their burden

Posted: 29 Sep 2011 06:31 PM PDT

JOHOR BARU: The victims of a recent fire in Skudai that wiped out eight houses were thankful of the speedy help offered by the MCA.

Retiree Lee Cheng Ho, 73, said that he was grateful that the party had come forward in just a few hours after the incident to offer aid to those affected by the early morning fire.

"I hope to buy some new clothes with the financial aid handed out by them as I only managed to grab one piece of shirt with me when the fire spread to my house," he said when met at Kg Baru Bt 8 1/2, Skudai here yesteday.

Lee added he has been staying at the house for the past 30 years said that he is now putting up at a nearby Nan An Chinese Association as he did not want to trouble his relative by imposing himself to their house.

Another victim Goh Ah Moi, 68, said that she was startled by her daughter-in-law's scream for help when the fire broke out on Sept 7.

"I felt so helpless as my legs went wobbly when I woke up to see her trying to put out the fire by spraying water but the blaze was too quick and the heat was too strong," she related.

Goh said she only managed to salvage her family's important documents while her precious jewellery were charred to bits.

Gelang Patah MCA division chief Jason Teoh, who handed out RM500 cash aid to each of the eight families affected, said that he would submit a report to the party president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek on the victim's plight as soon as possible.

"We hope that the report can be submitted to Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman so that we can come up with ways to help the victims like helping them apply for low-cost houses as they are desperate for a place to stay," he said.

A row of houses, which housed eight families, was destroyed in the pre-dawm fire.

State Fire and Rescue Department operation assistant director Mohd Pisar Aziz said said that the estimated total loss is about RM350,000, while salvaging about RM400,000 of belongings such as furniture, cash and jewellery and investigations are ongoing to determine the cause of the fire.

Authorities to come down hard on illegal gambling outlets

Posted: 29 Sep 2011 06:30 PM PDT

MALACCA: Clandestine operations employed by operators of illegal internet gambling outlets here has made it tough for the city council here to thwart such activities that is reported to be mushrooming here over the past couple of months.

The operators were now occupying the upper floors of shoplots and only allowing selected patrons into their premises while camouflaging their operations as licensed cybercafes.

Mayor Datuk Zainal Abu said he had directed his enforcement officers to closely monitor such operations and act against them at once without accepting any explanations from unlawful operators.

"We will continue to intensify operations with the co-operation from police to eradicate the existence within the jurisdiction of the council," he said.

Zainal said the council has raided 15 such premises on Monday night but only one premise was discovered to have offered illegal gambling software.

"We have obtained court orders to raid all these premises and confiscated 14 table-top computers during our operation.

"We believe other operators got a wind that we have launched an all-out war against such outlets and probably halted their operations temporarily," he said.

Zainal said 40 enforcement officers were involved in the one day operation where several gambling paraphernalias were also seized from an operator.

"I was also directed my officers to carry out undercover work to check on whether the operators would re-open after a while when the heat on the issue diminishes," he said.

Zainal added that the council will focus their operations at Tangga Batu, Tanjung Kling and Jalan Tun Perak, Taman Gadong Perdana, Taman Bertam Perdana, Malim Jaya and Taman Teluk Mas where such outlets thrive.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Jumaat, 30 September 2011