Some Memories

THE 2009 tax-filing season for individuals has arrived. For many of us, April 30 will be just another day (perhaps accompanied by scrambling for our just-in-time filing) to settle our dues with the Inland Revenue Board by submitting the Form e-BE and paying any balance tax. Before clicking the button to complete the e-filing, take a second look at the figures keyed in. Is the amount of tax calculated the lowest it can be? Here are some tips on saving tax that would not get you in trouble with the law. 1. Know your income: What is taxable and what is not. Gone are the days when you agonise over the delay in receiving your Form EA from your employer. It is now a law for employers to issue the Form EA to their employees no later than the end of February. The key point to note is not all income in your Form EA is taxable! Scrutinise all the items in Form EA to see if there is any which should be tax-free. For example: Travelling allowances If you receive travelling allowance, up t...

KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 (Bernama) -- Former MCA deputy president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek won the president's post with a slim 68-vote majority Sunday, edging former number one Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting and incumbent Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat in the party's elections. Dr Chua, 62, polled 901 votes to Ka Ting's 833. Tee Keat came in third with 578 votes. Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai clinched the deputy president's post when he garnered 1,171 votes to beat former vice-president and fellow Cabinet minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha by 65 votes. Kong had obtained 1,106 votes. For the four posts of vice-president, sole woman contender Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen had the highest number of votes - 1,528, followed by former vice-president Datuk Donald Lim (1,469), Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung (1,202) and Central Committee (CC) member Gan Ping Sieu (also 1,202).

Excercise, diet can cut breast cancer risk by 30% BARCELONA (Spain): Up to a third of breast cancer cases in Western countries could be avoided if women ate less and exercised more, researchers at a conference said, renewing a sensitive debate about how lifestyle factors affect the disease. Better treatments, early diagnosis and mammogram screenings have dramatically slowed breast cancer, but experts said the focus should now shift to changing behaviors like diet and physical activity. "What can be achieved with screening has been achieved. We can't do much more," Carlo La Vecchia, head of epidemiology at the University of Milan, said in an interview. "It's time to move on to other things." La Vecchia spoke Thursday at a European breast cancer conference in Barcelona. He cited figures from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which estimates that 25 to 30 percent of breast cancer cases could be avoided if women were thinner and exercise...

Lee Chong Wei, 28, won the All-England on Monday, beating Japan's rising star Kenichi Tago 21-19, 21-19, and put himself as the fifth Malaysian All-England winner after Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, Wong Peng Soon, Datuk Eddy Choong and Tan Aik Huang. The match is downloadable from the link below. http://www.sendspace.com/file/3xh523

Consumers let down by cap on UniFi packages PETALING JAYA: After the excitement of Telekom Malaysia unveiling UniFi, its high-speed broadband service that offers Internet speeds of up to 20 megabits per second (Mbps), the bubble burst for many consumers here. Some are disappointed over what they feel are expensive charges for the packages for home users: RM149 for 5Mbps, RM199 for 10Mbps, and RM249 for 20Mbps. In Singapore, a 1Gbps (gigabit per second) service – which is five times the speed of a 20Mbps connection – only costs about RM200. But the real disappointment is the realisation that the UniFi packages have a cap on the amount of data that can be downloaded. The consumers bristled when they learned that the 5Mbps service is capped at 60GB of data per month. The 10Mbps service is capped at 90GB while the 20Mbps service has a 120GB cap. They were even more disappointed to learn that the data download caps are calculated on a daily basis . Consumers were further hor...

Dividend-paying companies Personal Investments - By Ooi Kok Hwa Despite investing in profit-making companies, a lot of investors have been complaining that they are not getting the desired returns from the companies that they have invested in. One of the main reasons is that these companies usually pay very low dividends or no dividends to their investors. Hence, even though these companies make good profits from their businesses, they are not sharing the profits with their minority investors. Companies that pay good dividends to their investors imply that the major shareholders of these companies are willing to share their wealth with minority investors. Given that minority investors have no control over these companies, they have only two sources of returns from their investments, namely dividend returns and capital gains. If the companies refuse to reward their investors with good dividends, then investors need to make sure that they buy low and sell high in order to get capita...

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/perth-wakes-up-to-a-100m-cleanup-after-storm-of-the-year-20100322-qqmw.html

Lee Chong Wei, 28, won the All-England on Monday, beating Japan's rising star Kenichi Tago 21-19, 21-19, and put himself as the fifth Malaysian All-England winner after Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, Wong Peng Soon, Datuk Eddy Choong and Tan Aik Huang.

Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASNB) today announced an income distribution of 6.30 sen per unit for Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) for the financial year ended March 31, 2010. Last year, the government-owned fund manager declared an income distribution of 6.25 sen per unit, which was the lowest since its introduction in 2000. Source: BTimes

High-speed broadband in Klang Valley beginning this month KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 (Bernama) -- Malaysians, currently among the biggest users of Yahoo!, Friendster, Facebook and blogs in Asia, can look forward to more high definition applications with the roll-out of high-speed broadband (HSBB) in the Klang Valley beginning this month. Twenty-seven areas in the Klang Valley will be equipped with the HSBB within two years, with initial roll-out in Bangsar, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Shah Alam and Subang Jaya which are considered as the areas with highest Internet usage in the country. Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) chairman Tan Sri Khalid Ramli said the HSBB, to be rolled out by Telekom Malaysia, is expected to have a speed more than 10 megabits per second (Mbps). While the existing 2Mbps allowed users to surf the Internet and use facilities like e-mail and YouTube, the bigger bandwidth would enable them to watch IPTV and HDTV, and gain access to advanced educ...

Good to find this old piece. From Beautiful Days OST (2001).   Zero - The Promise (Yak Sok) Can you really say that you'll always be by my side? I am still noting compared to you Can I really have you? I should let you go before it's too late Seeing you get worn out from waiting But as always I can't make you wait You were always by my side My love has nothing to offer You can always find someone better If you only didn't believe that I'd always be your side Maybe we are at the end of the rope I think I should let you go now Every time I hold you in my arms I can't say a word because I am so sorry Carrying you, who has been hurt Acting as if nothing is wrong With the promise that I can't keep I can't make you wait fro me again You are the love of my life You can find someone better You should leave me before it's too late I want hang on to you, but I know it's wrong I want you to be happy I can't keep you wa...

As what I expected. With the way of the current living scenarios, the marriage and eventually the birth rate will drop. More getting married later or not at all KUALA LUMPUR: Fewer Malaysian men and women want to tie the knot now compared with 10 years ago. A recent survey by the National Population and Family Development Board on trends between 2000 and 2007 indicated that the average marriage age of marrying Malaysians would increase to 33 years by 2015 or they may choose not to get married at all. Universiti Malaya's Associate Professor Tey Nai Peng said the average age at first marriage for men and women had increased from 25.5 and 22.0 years respectively in 1970 to 28.6 and 25.1 years in 2000. Also, the number of those who had never been married between the ages of 25 and 29 years had more than doubled for women from 13% to 29%, and rose from 32% to 54% among men, he added. "Although marriage behaviour varies widely across the various ethnic groups and regions...

What's your definition of better life? Students share a 'better life' PETALING JAYA: An end to child abuse. Less time spent on social media. More time for personal interaction. These were among the suggestions from students who were asked on what they thought would contribute to a better world. Source: The Star

http://apps.malaysiaairlines.com/valuecalculator/ValueCalculator.aspx?cid=1901 Good one for us who wanna to calculate and compare the total cost of flight expenses before doing the booking.

National Aquatic Centre, Kompleks Sukan Negara, Bukit Jalil Swimming Recreation Activities Category Ticket Price (Monday-Thursday) Ticket Price (Saturday, Sunday & Public Holiday) Children under 12 year Free Free Youth (13 - 17 years) RM 3.00 RM 4.00 Adult (18 - 54 years) RM 4.00 RM 5.00 Disabled RM 3.00 RM 4.00 Goverment Servant RM 3.00 RM 4.00 Senior Citizen (55 years and above) RM 3.00 RM 4.00 Opening Time Monday to Thursday 2.00 pm - 4.30 pm 5.00 pm - 7.30 pm 8.00 pm - 10.30pm Friday (Free) 8.00 am - 9.30 am 10.00 am - 11.30 am 3.00 pm - 4.30 pm 5.30 pm - 7.00 pm Saturday, Sunday & Public Holiday 9.00 am -11.30 am 12.00 pm - 2.30 pm 3.00 pm - 5.30 pm 6.00 pm - 8.30 pm Source: http://www.stadium.gov.my

Not fair for the new shareholders. Should Maxis' current shareholders bear IPO costs? PETALING JAYA: Should existing shareholders of Maxis Bhd bear the cost of its initial public offering when the proceeds went to its selling shareholders and not into the company's coffers? That was the question that was being asked by several market observers following Maxis' recently released fourth quarter results. For the period, the company made a one-time charge of RM120mil largely related to IPO expenses – RM53mil for discount of shares issued to retail investors in relation to the IPO and RM24mil listing expenses (the remaining RM43mil involves higher finance costs which is not IPO related) – in the company's income statement. (Note: in the third quarter, it had made a charge of RM26 mil for IPO expenses.) As a result, the company's earnings was dragged down; profit for the fourth quarter was 18% lower at RM503mil compared to RM615mil in the preceding quarter. Consequen...

EPF declares 5.65 percent dividend rate for 2009

Tiered fuel plan officially scrapped, no increase for now. PUTRAJAYA: The Government has officially scrapped its plan to restructure the fuel subsidy scheme based on the engine capacity of vehicles, Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consu­merism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced on Thursday. He also said there would be no price increase for now. The plan, originally set to be implemented on May 1, was to introduce a tiered pricing system for petrol, depending on engine capacity, while foreigners would have to pay the market price. It called for the mandatory use of MyKad to differentiate Malaysians from foreigners, requiring the need for MyKad readers at petrol stations Subsidised petrol would be capped to a certain amount of litres a month per user for owners of vehicles with engine capacities of below a certain threshold. The reported upper limit eligibility for the petrol subsidy is 2,000cc. Owners of cars with bigger engine capacities would be exempted from ...

Fuel prices set to rise PETALING JAYA: The Government is likely to revert to slight increases in fuel prices over time now that it has been officially announced that the proposed two-tier fuel subsidy scheme based on vehicle engine capacity has been scrapped, analyst and economists say. Source: The Star

Didn't realize Wikipedia has a huge entry on this subject. Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture Health Information Organization Australia recognizes TCM studies

With this awareness, I vow not to consume shark fin soup anymore. Over 100 million sharks are killed every year, a portion of which due to the demand for shark fin soup. [26] Major declines in shark populations have been recorded in recent years—some species have been depleted by over 90% over the past 20–30 years with a population decline of 70% not being unusual. [27] Only a small amount of the shark is actually kept. This is done is a process called finning where the fins of the shark is cut from living sharks. [28] After the fins have been cut off, the remainder of the fish which is often still-living, is thrown back into the sea. [28] When returned to the ocean , the finless shark is unable to swim and sinks to the ocean bottom and dies a slow death. [29] The 2007 documentary Sharkwater [30] exposes the abuse in shark-finning industry and the damage it is causing to the ocean's ecosystems. It also uncovers government corruption supporting the industry. Source: Wikipe...

Quake, tsunamis kill more than 700 in Chile