Director of the Royal Malaysian Customs Department (JDKM) Penang Datuk Roselan Ramli and officers show the smuggled liquor during a press conference at the Bagan Jermal Enforcement Store.
PHOTO: BERNAMA
BUTTERWORTH (BERNAMA) – The Royal Malaysian Customs Department in Penang successfully foiled 240 smuggling and Customs duty evasion attempts between January and August, resulting in seizures valued at over MYR28 million, including duties.
State director Datuk Roselan Ramli stated that cigarettes topped the list with 107 cases, amounting to MYR2.7 million in goods and MYR9.28 million in duties.
There were 81 cases involving liquor amounting to MYR1.739 million, with MYR6.64 million in duties, he added. “We also seized MYR1.013 million worth of drugs in four cases and uncovered 39 vehicle-related cases, with seizures valued at MYR1.664 million and MYR2.56 million in taxes,” he said during a press conference yesterday at the Enforcement Storage Facility in Bagan Jermal.
Roselan noted that four currency smuggling cases were also intercepted valued at MYR473,971.69, and other cases involving tobacco and soft drinks, valued at MYR1.68 million, including MYR704,992.73 in taxes.
Director of the Royal Malaysian Customs Department (JDKM) Penang Datuk Roselan Ramli and officers show the smuggled liquor during a press conference at the Bagan Jermal Enforcement Store. PHOTO: BERNAMA
ABOVE & BELOW: A close-up of the table-top football game of Subbuteo; and junior players representing Italy and Belgium play a game during the Subbuteo World Cup in Tunbridge Wells in south east England. PHOTO: AFP
TUNBRIDGE WELLS (AFP) – With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration.
In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love.
“I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event.
Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo which was invented here in 1946 before being copied around the world.
The game of skill and strategy fell out of fashion with the advent of computer games, but is enjoying a renaissance among nostalgists and also the younger generation, with this year’s tournament the largest ever.
Around 5,000 people visited the three-day tournament’s various events, according to Stewart Grant, press officer with organiser The English Subbuteo Association, as the town embraced the unusual honour.
ABOVE & BELOW: A close-up of the table-top football game of Subbuteo; and junior players representing Italy and Belgium play a game during the Subbuteo World Cup in Tunbridge Wells in south east England. PHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFPABOVE & BELOW: A Subbuteo player; and competitors’ medals. PHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFPABOVE & BELOW: A referee tries to settle a dispute during a game between Italy and Greece; and a carrying case of Subbuteo players. PHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFP
“Everybody you speak to, they say it’s the home. It’s a pilgrimage for some people,” he added.
The game’s collectability has always been part of its allure, with many people accumulating the finely-painted teams, stands, supporters, floodlights, replica trophies and scoreboards without actually playing.
“It’s quite cool, you can control the ball and the amount of power with your own hands,” said spectator and part-time player Harry Brown, 12.
“I like how you can paint the players and change the teams,” he added.
England youth player Alex Scott told AFP that he didn’t play video games because Subbuteo is “a lot more fun”.
“Its the competitiveness and going around different places meeting new people,” he added.
His father, Justin, runs a club in Wolverhampton and was one of many at the event who said they had noticed an increase in members.
“A lot of people went into their loft and found their Subbuteo” during COVID lockdowns, and “then looked if there was a club when everything reopened”, he explained. The aim of the game is the same as football, to score more goals then your opponent.
This is achieved by flicking the tiny players, who either have a flat or semi-circular base, into the ball and manoeuvring it into goalscoring positions.
The team event knockouts (U12s, U16s, U20s, veterans, women and open) at the climax of the tournament took place around the same time as Sunday’s Premier League match between Manchester City and Arsenal.
But all eyes in the Tunbridge Wells Sports centre were on the 50 bright green 90 by 50 centimetre cloth tables.
Before the games, the combatants took their star players out of their ornate wooden boxes, lubricated their bases and set them up in precise formations. After a 10-second countdown, the flick-off began 30 minutes of action.
The team games consist of four simultaneous individual matches, with huge roars punctuating the general buzz of the spectators, indicating where goals were being scored.
Tensions came close to spilling over on occasion, including when England players took off on a victory dash after scoring a goal against the mighty Italians, only to have it controversially ruled out.
MANILA (XINHUA) – Two people were killed and another critically injured after a sedan crashed into a motorcycle in Palawan province, Philippine police said yesterday.
According to the police, the accident happened on Thursday at 11.25pm local time along a highway in Puerto Princesa City.
Police who rushed to the scene said that the 19-year-old male sedan driver lost control of the speeding vehicle, swerved to the opposite side of the road, and collided with the motorcycle.
The motorcycle riders were thrown onto the road, resulting in the deaths of the 21-year-old male motorcycle driver and one of his two passengers, a 68-year-old female.
The driver’s 20-year-old partner was also critically injured.
Police did not say if the sedan driver escaped the accident unscathed. A police investigation is underway.
JAKARTA (XINHUA) – The Medan District Court in Indonesia sentenced a drug dealer, identified as FRL, to death on Thursday for possessing 28 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine and 14,431 ecstasy pills.
Chief Judge Lenny Megawaty Napitupulu stated that the death sentence was in line with the prosecutor’s demands and in accordance with the Narcotics Law.
FRL was arrested on January 29 after police received a tip-off about drug transactions in Medan. An undercover officer, posing as a buyer, arranged a meeting with the dealer on Jalan Flamboyan Raya in Medan.
FRL was apprehended during the transaction, and a subsequent search of his residence led to the discovery of the meth and ecstasy pills.
ABOVE & BELOW: Photos show works on display at the official unveiling of Christie’s new Asia Pacific headquarters at the Henderson Centre in Hong Kong. PHOTO: AFP
HONG KONG (AFP) – A Vincent van Gogh painting displaying the artist’s shift from dark realism to vibrant impressionism could become the most expensive Western painting sold in Asia if it fetches its top estimated value of USD50 million at a Hong Kong auction on Thursday.
Les canots amarres – or the moored boats – will be the centrepiece of an inaugural evening sale held to celebrate the opening of auction house Christie’s new Asia Pacific headquarters.
According to Christie’s, it could fetch between HKD230-380 million (USD30-50 million) on the auction floor. To date, the most expensive Western painting sold in the region is Warrior by Jean-Michel Basquiat, the auction house said.
It had the Christie’s gavel dropped at HKD323.6 million – roughly USD41.9 million at the time – in Hong Kong in 2021.
Owned by the Italian royal family of Bourbon Two Sicilies, the Van Gogh painting is “the most important painting by the artist ever to be offered in Asia”, Christie’s said in its introduction.
“Les canots amarres marks a vital stepping stone in his career,” it said. The painting is one of about 40 works Van Gogh developed around the scenic French town of Asnieres, a boating hub on the outskirts of Paris, during the summer of 1887.
With those paintings, “he left behind for good the dark, earthy tones of his realist pictures of old. He now adopted a vibrant palette and loose expressive brush instead”, said Christie’s.
In a letter to his sister Willemien in October 1887, the artist wrote, “When I painted landscape in Asnieres this summer, I saw more colour… than ever before.”
Princess Camilla of the House of Bourbon Two Sicilies called it a painting “of incredible history in the very particular moment of the artist’s (career)”, according to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.
She said she chose the Chinese city for the sale to tap into the Asian market’s “strong and expanding base of collectors who are increasingly interested in Western art”.
Born in the Netherlands in 1853, Vincent van Gogh was among the most famous and influential figures in Western art. He created around 2,100 pieces, including about 860 oil paintings, in a career that lasted only a decade before his death in 1890.
Christie’s high-profile auction on Thursday will also feature 45 other masterpieces from the 20th and 21st Centuries – ranging from the French impressionist painter Claude Monet to the England-based street artist Banksy.
ABOVE & BELOW: Photos show works on display at the official unveiling of Christie’s new Asia Pacific headquarters at the Henderson Centre in Hong Kong. PHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFP
Joshua Kiser broke the world record for the tallest hat. PHOTO: GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS
UPI – A man in the United States (US) fulfilled his ambition of crafting the world’s tallest hat, proudly walking with a cap measuring 17 feet, 9.5 inches.
“I was browsing the Guinness World Records website for inspiration when I came across a photo of a man with a massive top hat – the world’s tallest,” Kiser told Guinness World Records.
The ‘eccentric man’, Odilon Ozare, had set the record in 2018 with a 15-foot, nine-inch hat.
“For no one single reason, the image of a ridiculously tall hat stuck with me. I shut my laptop and went off to search for materials to make a tall hat. I was convinced I’d be able to set the record and have my name in the history books in no time,” Kiser said.
His design was inspired when he came across some lightweight gutters at Home Depot, as well as a Philadelphia Eagles trash can.
The hat was reinforced with expanding foam and covered it with Santa-style red fabric to give it the appearance of a hat.
Joshua Kiser broke the world record for the tallest hat. PHOTO: GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS
PARIS (AFP) – A pet-loving part-time musician is fast becoming a global star by gently poking fun at Donald Trump for suggesting that Haitian immigrants are making a meal of America’s cats and dogs.
Eating the cats, a parody song by The Kiffness which sets to music Trump’s extraordinary claims during the United States (US) presidential debate that migrants in Ohio “are eating the dogs, eating the cats”, has been viewed more than 8.7 million times on YouTube alone in 12 days.
“People of Springfield please don’t eat my cat,” pleads the South African singer, whose real name is David Scott. “Why would you do that?/ Eat something else.”
He then helpfully holds up a card suggesting a range of other mostly veggie options, including broccoli, avocados and poached eggs.
The singer, who has been slowly building a following for his feel-good songs about pets and children – because “they tend to unite people” – has seen his popularity soar since he got his singing claws into Trump.
Although he insists he is not attacking anybody, just giving some cat and dog-friendly dietary advice.
“I think music has a powerful way of taking away negative energy and polarising feelings, especially with someone like Donald Trump, who is such a polarising figure,” he told AFP before his band gave a concert in Paris.
PHOTO: ENVATO
“I want my music to unite people. And I think that’s why I moved towards music that included animals. Because animals unite people,” said the 36-year-old from Cape Town.
The video, which has been watched by millions more on social media, shows Trump’s rival Kamala Harris reacting to his widely-derided claims during their debate earlier this month. A couple of cats and dogs also chip in with vocals, and equally incredulous looks.
Scott said all the earnings from the song are going to help pets and stray cats and dogs in Springfield, with more than USD20,000 already raised.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he told AFP. “The interest has been overwhelming from both sides, from Democrats, from Republicans.”
He said the song was not “laughing at the situation, it’s saying that you can rise above it… and just see the humour in things”, said the musician, who describes himself on X as a “husband, father (and) part-time musician”.
Springfield’s mayor, police and Ohio’s Republican governor have all said there is no evidence to back up Trump’s claims that Haitian migrants were eating the city’s pets.
But that has not stopped his running mate JD Vance – an Ohio senator – from doubling down on the claims, despite being widely mocked.
“My constituents are telling me firsthand that they’re seeing these things,” an unapologetic Vance told CNN.
AFP – Young people’s bedtime routines often involve screen-based activities, such as watching movies, listening to music, scrolling through social media, or texting.
A Canadian study has raised concerns about the impact these habits may have on preteens’ sleep quality.
Conducted by the University of Toronto and published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, the research highlights sleep disturbances associated with pre-sleep screen use in young individuals.
Researchers analysed data from more than 9,000 pre-teens aged 11 to 12, between 2018 and 2021.
These young people were questioned about their sleep habits and their use of screens and social networks at bedtime. The scientists found that a quarter of the preteens had sleep disturbance.
Nearly two in 10 (16.2 per cent) reported having been woken up at least once in the past week by phone calls, text messages or e-mails. Nearly 20 per cent said they had used their phone or another device if they woke up during the night.
The paper reported that “in early adolescents, several bedtime screen use behaviours are associated with adverse sleep outcomes one year later, including sleep disturbance and shorter weekly sleep duration”.
And when electronic devices are left on in bedrooms during the night, they are more readily available and all the more tempting to use.
In a news release, study lead author Dr Jason Nagata, associate professor of paediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, said, “Ensuring adolescents get enough sleep is vital, as it supports their physical and mental growth and development. Our research found that leaving notifications on, even in silent mode, leads to less sleep compared to turning the phone off completely or keeping it outside the bedroom.”
“Adolescents can be extremely sensitive to phone notifications, often waking up instantly when they hear their phone,” continued Nagata. “Even if a phone is on silent or vibrate, adolescents may still check it overnight. Once they start reading or responding to messages, they can become more alert and activated.”
AFP – Five people were arrested in India for the killing of a seven-year-old boy in an alleged ritual sacrifice aimed at bringing good fortune to a public school, police said yesterday.
The victim was found dead in his bed last Sunday night at the hostel where he lived in the city of Hathras, not far from the country’s famed Taj Mahal. Instead of alerting authorities, police said that school director Dinesh Baghel hid the body in the trunk of his car.
Police officer Himanshu Mathur told AFP that the boy was killed before a black magic ceremony conducted by Baghel’s father.
“The boy was meant to be taken to an altar as part of a ritual, but got killed before the ceremony could be completed,” he said.
Baghel and his father were arrested along with three other teachers at the school, Mathur added. Mathur did not give further details on how the child had died and local media reports said the body was undergoing a post-mortem examination.
India’s National Crime Records Bureau lodged 103 cases of human sacrifice in the country between 2014 and 2021.
Ritual killings are usually conducted to appease deities and are more common in tribal and remote areas, where belief in witchcraft and the occult is widespread.
Last year police arrested five men for the 2019 murder of a 64-year-old woman who was killed and decapitated with a machete after visiting a temple in India’s remote northeast.
AFP – A study published in BMJ Public Health has uncovered a connection between an individual’s preference for morning or evening activity and their cognitive function, suggesting that early risers may not be as mentally sharp as night owls.
Researchers from Imperial College London reached this unexpected conclusion after analysing data from over 26,000 participants who had undergone tests assessing intelligence, reasoning, and memory. Participants identified themselves as either early risers or night owls based on when they felt most alert and productive during the day.
The researchers used all this information to determine the extent to which the volunteers’ sleep duration, quality and habits impacted their cognitive performance.
They also took into account various factors linked to general health and lifestyle, such as age, gender, bad habits and the presence of chronic illnesses (heart disease, diabetes, etc).
Night owls were found to score 13.5 per cent higher than early risers. The so-called “intermediate” participants, ie those with a mild preference for either day or night, scored higher than the self-declared morning people. Nevertheless, they performed less well than the night owls.
“It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean all morning people have worse cognitive performance. The findings reflect an overall trend where the majority might lean towards better cognition in the evening types,” explained the study’s lead author, Dr Raha West, in a news release.
PHOTO: ENVATOPHOTO: ENVATO
THE IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP
More generally, Dr West and colleagues noted the importance of sleep duration for brain function.
Sleeping seven to nine hours a night improves reasoning and memory skills, as well as the speed with which information is processed. Conversely, sleeping less than seven hours or more than nine has a detrimental effect on cognitive performance.
“While understanding and working with your natural sleep tendencies is essential, it’s equally important to remember to get just enough sleep, not too long or too short. This is crucial for keeping your brain healthy and functioning at its best,” continued Dr West.
This study adds to a growing body of scientific research surrounding our body clocks and how they can affect us.
Indeed, we don’t all reach our peak performance at the same time of day, some being more alert in the morning than in the evening, and vice versa.
These differences are linked to our internal clock, which synchronises our body to a 24-hour rhythm. But chronotype (being a morning or evening person) isn’t everything. Sleep has a considerable influence on our cognitive function, as it allows the body to recover both physically and mentally.
To keep our brains healthy, it’s best to be vigilant about sleep quality. And above all, respect your biological rhythm. Night owls won’t be at their best in the morning, unlike early risers.
But they will perform much better in the late afternoon, when the morning people might be flagging.
