ACTRESS APPEALS TO HUSBAND

Wednesday August 6, 2008

Actress appeals to husband to settle debts with loan sharks

KUALA LUMPUR: Actress Wan Nor Azlin Wan Mohd Husain, who has been targeted by loan sharks after her husband allegedly failed to repay a loan, is appealing for him to return and be responsible for his actions.

“Only my husband knows who he borrowed the money from. I want him to come back and face his problems and not run away from it,” she said yesterday at a press conference organised by the MCA Public Services and Complaints Department.

She also feared for her family’s safety and asked her husband to cooperate with the police to settle the matter.

“I fear for the safety of my children. They are very young. It is not fair for you to just leave me to take care of them,” she said in her plea for her husband to return.

Wan Nor Azlin also apologised to the moneylenders for not being able to repay the loans.

The 40-year old won the Seri Angkasa Award for best drama actress for her role in Takbir Untuk Abdah in 2001 and had starred in more than 200 drama and theatre productions.

She also appealed to them to stop harassing her family because she did not have details of her husband’s debts.

Wan Nor Azlin added moneylenders had continuously harassed her famiy since her husband went missing on July 10.

This included having offensive posters pasted on the gates of her house with the most recent being paint poured on her car and house on July 30.

“My husband did not answer my calls that night but he sent me an SMS to just text him if anything happened,” she said.

She believes her husband has gone into hiding because of the threats and has been unable to contact him since.

“Don’t threaten him. Give him a chance to go to work and earn the money to settle the debts,” she said. “My family is effected too as I am not working right now and I depend on my husband’s income.”

Department head Datuk Michael Chong said it is believed the husband had borrowed some RM200,000 from about 30 Ah Long since last year.

“But no one knows the exact amount that he owes and who he owes it to,” he said.

Malaysian Artistes Association Freddie Fernandez was also present and said the association would help Wan Nor Azlin find employment.

ARTICLES SOURCE: http://thestar.com.my

THAKSIN OVER MYANMAR LOANS

Top Thai court hits Thaksin over Myanmar loans


BANGKOK (July 30, 2008) :

Thailand's Supreme Court said on Wednesday it would hear a case against ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra relating to allegations he arranged soft loans to Myanmar while in office to benefit his family's telecoms business.

The court's decision is the latest blow to Thaksin's bid to clear his name after his removal in a 2006 military coup, in which he was accused of "rampant corruption".

Given the general perception that he is the driving force behind the coalition that came to power after an election in December, it is also another blow to an administration already being hammered by the courts, nationalists and an ailing economy.

An army-appointed graft panel has accused Thaksin of ordering a state bank in 2004 to increase the size of a loan to the military-ruled former Burma to buy telecoms equipment from a company owned by Thaksin's family.

The deal caused the bank to lose 670 million baht (US$20 million), the panel alleged. Thaksin has denied any wrongdoing.

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej is expected to reshuffle his cabinet this week, although it is hard to see the move deflecting criticism from an administration under attack for being a Thaksin proxy.

A small party announced its departure from the coalition on Tuesday, but Samak said this would not derail his plans to submit a list of new ministers to the king for approval.

"It won't affect the cabinet reshuffle," he told reporters in answer to a question about the withdrawal of the Pue Pandin (For the Motherland) party from the coalition.

Announcing the departure, Pue Pandin boss and Industry Minister Suvit Khunkitti criticised Samak's push to amend the 2007 army-designed constitution and his handling of the economy at a time of stuttering growth and decade-high inflation.

"We think amending the constitution is less important than tackling the economic problems," Suvit said. "But when parliament convenes in August, the government is going to amend the charter."

He also had scathing words for the government's conduct in a nationalist spat with Cambodia over competing claims to a 900-year-old Hindu temple on their border.

Samak has kept unusually quiet about the planned new line-up, saying only that it will involve 10 portfolios.

A respected career diplomat, Tej Bunnag, was appointed foreign minister at the weekend to replace Noppadon Pattama -- Thaksin's lawyer -- who was forced to resign over the Preah Vihear temple dispute with Cambodia.

However, newspapers are speculating that Samak's new cabinet will contain a host of Thaksin loyalists.

"The names of new ministers being speculated on in the newspapers suggest that those who have been loyal to Mr. Thaksin are being favoured," political commentator Sukhum Nuanskul told Reuters. - Reuters

ARTICLES SOURCE: http://www.thesundaily.com

BADMAN DOWN

Dead gunman linked to several violent crimes



By FRAN KIE D’CRUZ, TEOH EL SEN, T.H. TEOH and SURAYA ROSLAN

Pistols, machine guns, ammo and other weapons found after Subang Jaya shootout with former Deva Gang member

THE gunman shot dead by police at midday yesterday on busy SS14 Subang Jaya is believed to have heavily armed himself after he split with the vicious Deva Gang and paired off with another gang member.

He is thought to have double teamed with his accomplice to pull off a string of robberies that included recent strikes on jewellers in the Klang Valley.

Soon after the shootout, police discovered a cache of weapons at the house he had occupied in SS14/2A. The cache included several pistols, large machine guns, including an older version of the M-16, several hundred rounds of ammunition, two sledgehammers and fake guns.

Some jewellery was also found at the premises. A red and black Yamaha LC 125, similar to the one seen by witnesses at a jewellery heist at the Giant hypermarket in Kelana Jaya last month, was also spotted there.

The gunman is thought to have struck a number of jewellery outlets located in hypermarkets with an accomplice, who became known for waving to the shop employees before sauntering off with the loot. According to police sources, he could have amassed all that heavy weaponry solely for his heists and that it was unlikely that he was a gunrunner.

The search is on for his accomplice. The Deva Gang is believed to have pulled off several daring robberies, including the brazen robbery at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on June 9 when four gunmen escaped with almost RM3.5 million after a violent shootout. Police had detained four men aged between 23 and 30 in Johor soon after the KLIA incident.

Speculation is also rife whether the gunman could be a suspect in a murder case in Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam early March.

Selangor police acting CID chief ACP Omar Mammah could not confirm or deny the man's involvement but said that Selangor police chief DCP Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar would hold a Press conference on the shooting today.

The shootout yesterday was the second in the Klang Valley in less than 24 hours, each bringing the ferocious crime sprees of two wild fugitives to a bloody end. The first happened at about 12.15am yesterday when the Myanmar Gang leader, suspected of countless drug, murder and gang fight offences, was killed in a shootout with police near the Selayang wholesate market.

In the Subang Jaya incident, police had trailed the gunman from Bangsar before blocking off his Naza Ria near a curb along Jalan SS14/2 at the commercial centre of Subang Jaya. Police then ordered the man to exit his vehicle. It is learnt police fired several shots, some of them through the driver's side windshield, when the man drew a semi-automatic Smith & Wesson pistol and fired at them.

It was not immediately clear how many shots the suspect had fired.

"We trailed the suspect after policemen noticed him behaving suspiciously.

Police are investigating the man's involvement in previous cases," ACP Omar said.

ARTICLES SOURCE: http://www.mmail.com.my

STOLEN BIKE

WeirdNews> Politician gets back stolen bike


LONDON: British opposition leader David Cameron has been reunited with his stolen bicycle thanks to a tabloid newspaper and a supporter of the rival Labour Party, the paper reported last Sunday.

The Conservative party leader, often photographed riding his bike to work at the House of Commons, realised that it was stolen after he left it outside a supermarket near his west London home last Wednesday evening.

The Sunday Mirror said it located the bicycle — dumped in a nearby street — with the help of 60-yearold resident Ernest Theophile, who enlisted neighbourhood youths to trace it. "You never want to see anyone have their bike nicked (stolen) — not even a Tory," he was quoted as saying.

The Conservative Party confirmed that the newspaper had returned the bike to Cameron.

Cameron, 41, uses the bicycle to commute from his home in trendy Notting Hill to Parliament to highlight his party's commitment to green issues. — AP

ARTICLES SOURCE: http://www.mmail.com.my