Indians celebrate century of living in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur: It is celebration time for ethnic Indians, whose forefathers came to settle in Malaysia, as they complete a century of living in the northeastern state of Kelantan, bordering Thailand. The ethnic Indian community chose for the celebrations the historic Batu Caves, a site 13 km from Kuala Lumpur that has one of the largest complex of Hindu shrines in the world outside India.

Over 2,000 members of the Association of Malaysia Indians of Kelantan Origin took a trip down memory lane as they recalled the time spent in the state.

Though many of them no longer reside in Kelantan, their sentiment for the state is still strong, The Star online reported Monday.

Multi-ethnic Malaysia is home to 2.1 million people of Indian origin, who constitute around seven and a half percent of the 28- million population. Association president T. Perumal was happy with the overwhelming response from his fellow Kelantanese who made the event a grand success.

This is going to be a yearly event. Next year, we will be having this gathering in Kelantan, said Perumal.

Punjabi female flight attendant jailed for cocaine smuggling

Toronto:
In the first case of jailing of an Indo-Canadian woman for drug trafficking, an Air Canada female flight attendant was Monday locked for eight years by a London court for smuggling four kilogram of cocaine into Britain.

Twenty-seven-year-old Mandeep Shahi of Torontos suburb of Mississauga was arrested in March for smuggling the contraband worth $400,000 in her flight from Torontos Pearson airport to Londons Heathrow. She pleaded guilty to her crime in September.

According to police, Shahi managed to smuggle the contraband because she was exempted from security check-up and deliver it to her three co-conspirators in London.

The co-conspirators - Simon Howard-Harwood, 28, Baljinder Nijjar, 28, and Ghulam Malik, 53 - all of whom are British citizens, were also convicted.

The female flight attendant is married to co-conspirator Baljinder Nijjars cousin here in Mississauga.

A weeping Shahi told the court during her sentencing hearing that her husband might have put the drugs in her suitcase without her knowledge.

Australia is good place to live, says Indian doctor Haneef

Dr.Mohamed Haneef

Melbourne: Mohamed Haneef, an Indian doctor who was falsely accused by Australian police of aiding terrorists, has said he still thinks Australia is a good place to live and work.

Haneef, who is back in Australia with his wife and three-year-old daughter for mediation talks for his hefty compensation claims against the Australian government next week, said Friday he harbored no ill-feelings over his "traumatic experience", Australian news agency AAP reported.

At a news conference, he glossed over questions about his poor treatment by Australian authorities, insisting he still thought Australia was a good place to live. Haneef, who now practises in the UAE, was working at the Gold Coast Hospital, Queensland when he was arrested by Australian Federal Police (AFP) in July 2007.

When asked if he was angry, he replied: "At the moment, no, Im happy." "Coming back to Australia represents a very important step for me and for my family... and Im hopeful that the upcoming mediation will be an opportunity to resolve this matter and give my family and me a chance to move forward," he said.

He said he would wait for the outcome before deciding whether to reapply for work with Queensland Health.

Haneef has sought "significant" compensation from the Australian government over his wrongful imprisonment on terrorism allegations. He was held in custody for 12 days before being charged with recklessly giving support to a terrorist organisation when his mobile phone SIM card was linked to a terrorist attack in Britain.The charges were later dropped as prosecutors admitted bungling the case and the independent Clarke inquiry cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Book chronicles life of Malaysias ethnic Indians

Kuala Lumpur: A book that chronicles Malaysias efforts to improve the conditions of its 2.1 million ethnic Indians in the last decade has been unveiled here.

Titled National Development Plans & Indians in Malaysia, the book articulates the official policies for the uplift of the community during the governments 8th, 9th and 10th plans between 1999 and 2010.

I put together in the book issues related to poverty, education, skills training, civil service, employment and social issues, said the author of the book, Denison Jayasooria, also an ethnic Indian, here over the weekend. He said the Indian community constitutes the bottom 40 percent of the multi-racial Malaysian population.

The first two parts of the book, which is divided into four parts with 30 chapters, are written in Bahasa Malaysia and the rest in English.

Not all policy documents have been circulated publicly or published before, as they were written and presented at various closed-door official meetings and forums, he added.

Jayasooria was appointed by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak in August as secretary to the Special Implementation Task Force to identify and monitor the participation of the Indian community in government projects and programs in the prime ministers department.

Badawi said that the book was meant for not only the Indian community but for all races to better understand the governments public policy, The Star reported Saturday.