7 lelaki terlibat dalam kegiatan gay ditahan

PULAU PINANG - Tujuh lelaki tempatan yang dipercayai terlibat dengan kegiatan gay ditahan dalam satu serbuan di Pulau Tikus di sini, pukul 9.30 malam tadi. Ketua Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah negeri, Senior Asisten Komisioner II, Wan Abdullah Tunku Said berkata, sepasukan anggota dari Cawangan Maksiat, Perjudian dan Kongsi Gelap (D7) terpaksa menunggu selama 30 minit untuk menyerbu pusat kecergasan diri itu kerana premis berkenaan hanya dibuka kepada ahli-ahli sahaja.

"Hasil pemeriksaan, polis menahan tujuh lelaki yang terlibat dengan kegiatan tidak bermoral itu, iaitu seorang penjaga premis, dan enam lelaki pekerja premis yang masing-masing berusia antara 20-an dan 30-an," katanya kepada pemberita ketika dihubungi di sini hari ini. 

Wan Abdullah berkata, polis merampas tiga helai tuala, minyak urut, tisu, dan satu botol plastik krim pelincir yang dipercayai untuk kegunaan aktiviti itu. Siasatan awal polis mendapati premis terbabit beroperasi tanpa lesen perniagaan, katanya. Beliau berkata, suspek akan disiasat mengikut Seksyen 377D Kanun Keseksaan dan jika disabitkan kesalahan boleh dihukum penjara maksimum 20 tahun, denda, atau dikenakan sebatan rotan.

Sumber Bernama 22 Mei, 2010

Sandakan businessmen against levy hike on foreigners

SANDAKAN: Sabah Employer’s Consultative Association (Seca) chairman Alan Khoo commented that if the government decides to increase the levy on foreign workers for the plantation and industrial sectors, the cost of doing business will be further increased.

“As of now, there are already so many levies, the windfall  tax, to name one, so this increase will increase overheads of the plantation sector,” said Khoo. He pointed out that this industry would be losing out in terms of competitiveness as compared to other countries, Indonesia in particular. Sandakan Fishing Association chairman Phua Peh Chee said he does not welcome the levy increase on foreign workers.

He said locals just could not take up the 24-hour hard labour job as fishermen going out to sea for weeks compared with the ability of foreign workers. He explained that if Indonesia can pay higher wages to these foreign workers, then we would be losing them and the whole fishing industry would be affected.

50 acres of Kinabatangan land acquired for conservation

KOTA KINABALU: The Borneo Conservation Trust (BCT) has acquired 50 acres of land at lower Kinabatangan for RM600,000 for conservation, said its chairman, Tan Sri Ibrahim Menudin. He said the long-term objective would be to purchase 13,000 hectares of land, but for the short term, BCT aimed to acquire several thousand hectares.

Ibrahim also said that programmes would be undertaken to ensure land owners understand the BCT objectives in purchasing land for conservation and the wildlife corridor. “Most importantly they understand so that they don’t ask for exorbitant price because it is not for commercial. It is a walkway for the animals,” Ibrahim said this at the BCT press conference here yesterday, where he also introduced the new board of trustees.

Ibrahim said BCT would also educate the people that oil palm plantation and wildlife can coexist sustainably. He pointed out that there was misconception, particularly from the Westerners, that oil palm plantation and deforestation had negatively impacted on carbon emission and wildlife here. “We are disseminating information to educate Asia and the world that oil palm production is an important aspect for the livelihood of millions of people and we can coexist with wildlife.” He said groundwork was being laid in the last three years and the next step was to ensure wildlife, mainly the orang utan, elephant and proboscis monkey were well preserved in Sabah.

In addition, Ibrahim said programmes would be held with palm oil operators such as Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Malaysian Palm Oil Association, and Malaysian Palm Oil Council to inform them about BCT objectives and obtain assistance, including funding, project development or conservation awareness programmes.