Menglait Secondary School welcomed its new batch of Year 7 students with a three-day orientation programme conducted virtually starting Monday.
The programme began with the registration of students, followed by the singing of national anthem and Doa led by Nuzul Asmadi bin Haji Abdullah.
School Principal Huzaimi bin Moksin shared that the school recorded an 18-per-cent increase in student admission this year, with 177 Year 7 students.
Despite the number exceeding the limit, the principal said that the school will always strive to provide quality education to all students.
“I would like to call on all parents and guardians to play a role in your children’s education. The school also hopes that parents and guardians can guide these students at home and always stay informed on their academic development from the teachers,” the principal said.
Students during the virtual orientation. PHOTO: LYNA MOHAMAD
“I believe that with your involvement, the students’ enthusiasm to always want to improve will never fade.”
The principal also called on parents and guardians to be actively involved in the school’s parents-teachers association.
Deputy Principal (Administration) Hajah Khadijah binti Haji Md Salleh, Deputy Principal (Academic) Dayangku Nurul Aminatun Faridah binti Pengiran Haji Ali and senior teacher (HEP) Sareah binti Haji Mahali also briefed the students on the first day.
On the second day, the programme continued with a briefing on co-curricular activities by Pengiran Abdul Rahman bin Pengiran Haji Ghani, followed by a session on ‘Growth Mind Set’ by Afrizah binti Haji Ahmad and Hajah Yusmawati binti Haji Alim. An activity with counsellor Hajah Mal Hafiza binti Haji Malek concluded the programme yesterday. Today, students will attend a sharing session on the school’s library by Haji Sulaiman bin Haji Aman, before the second session of ‘Growth Mind Set’.
An ice-breaking session with teachers will also be held on the final day of orientation.
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Fallen United States (US) biotech star Elizabeth Holmes was convicted on Monday of defrauding investors in her blood-testing start-up Theranos, in a high-profile case seen as an indictment of Silicon Valley culture.
Holmes is a rare example of a tech exec being brought to book over a company flaming out, in a sector littered with the carcasses of money-losing companies that once promised untold riches.
Her case shone a spotlight on the blurred line between the hustle that characterises the industry and outright criminal dishonesty.
Jurors took seven days of deliberations to reach their verdict, finding her guilty of four counts of tricking investors into pouring money into what she claimed was a revolutionary testing system.
But the panel – who had listened to weeks of sometimes complex evidence – also acquitted her on four charges and could not reach a verdict on three others.
Elizabeth Holmes entering federal court in San Jose. PHOTO: AP
“The guilty verdicts in this case reflect Holmes’ culpability in this large-scale investor fraud and she must now face sentencing for her crimes,” US Attorney Stephanie Hinds said in a prepared statement read outside the courthouse by a representative.
Holmes made no comment as she left the court when asked if she intended to appeal.
The 37-year-old now faces the possibility of 20 years behind bars for each conviction. She remains at liberty ahead of another hearing on the terms of her bail next week. No date was set for sentencing.
Holmes was hailed as the next tech visionary on magazine covers and collected mountains of investors’ cash, but it all collapsed after Wall Street Journal reporting revealed the machines did not work as promised.
Prosecutors spent 11 weeks presenting over two dozen witnesses, as they painstakingly laid out their argument that Holmes knew her technology fell short, and deliberately misled investors and patients.
AP – A couple of factors are at play, starting with the emergence of the highly contagious Omicron variant. Omicron is more likely to infect people, even if it doesn’t make them very sick, and its surge coincided with the holiday travel season in many places.
People might mistakenly think the COVID-19 vaccines will completely block infection, but the shots are mainly designed to prevent severe illness, said virus researcher at the University of Minnesota Louis Mansky.
And the vaccines are still doing their job on that front, particularly for people who’ve gotten boosters.
Two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine still offer strong protection against serious illness from Omicron. While those initial doses aren’t very good at blocking Omicron infection, boosters – particularly with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines – rev up levels of the antibodies to help fend off infection.
Omicron appears to replicate much more efficiently than previous variants. And if infected people have high virus loads, there’s a greater likelihood they’ll pass it on to others, especially the unvaccinated. Vaccinated people who get the virus are more likely to have mild symptoms, if any, since the shots trigger multiple defences in your immune system, making it much more difficult for Omicron to slip past them all.
Advice for staying safe hasn’t changed. Doctors said to wear masks indoors, avoid crowds and get vaccinated and boosted. Even though the shots won’t always keep you from catching the virus, they’ll make it much more likely you stay alive and out of the hospital.
BEIJING (AP) – A landslide at a construction site in southwestern China has killed 14 people and injured three others, official reports said yesterday.
The cause of the landslide on Monday evening in Bijie city in Guizhou province is under investigation, the reports said. Workers were building a training facility for a hospital at the time of the landslide. Mountainous, inland Guizhou is one of China’s least developed regions.
More than 1,000 people joined the overnight rescue effort, Xinhua news agency said.
Workplace accidents are a recurring problem in China as a result of managers cutting corners, lax enforcement of safety standards and decaying infrastructure.
Among China’s worst accidents was a massive 2015 explosion at a chemical warehouse in the port city of Tianjin that killed 173 people, most of them firefighters and police officers.
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND (AP) – Ralf Rangnick (AP; Pic below) is beginning to understand just how big a job he has taken on at Manchester United. His players are already becoming dispirited, too.
Rangnick fell to his first loss as United manager after Joao Moutinho’s 82nd minute strike earned Wolverhampton a 1-0 win in the English Premier League on Monday, and his team’s first victory at Old Trafford since 1980.
Outplayed for much of the game, United’s players looked like they would survive for a point until Moutinho met a defensive headed clearance by controlling the ball at the edge of the area and driving in a volley that rolled just inside the post.
This was the toughest test of Rangnick’s opening six matches in charge and United at times couldn’t get near Wolves, whose passing and movement was sharper in its first game in two weeks following COVID-19 issues in the squad.
Wolves had 19 shots in total, with the 15 in the first half the most by a visiting team at Old Trafford since the league’s statistic supplier, Opta, began recording stats in 2003.
There were murmurings of discontent from the home fans, too, with some jeering Rangnick’s decision to substitute Mason Greenwood just before the hour.
“I didn’t feel when I was on the pitch that we were all there together,” said United left back Luke Shaw, who complained of a lack of options on the ball and aggression off it.
Shaw went on to paint a bleak picture of life in a squad that includes world-renowned players Cristiano Ronaldo, Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes, the latter of whom started on the bench.
“You look at our team, the players we have, we have unbelievable quality,” Shaw said.
“Sometimes quality isn’t enough. We need to bring the intensity, be more aggressive, and bring more motivation.
“Maybe from the outside it didn’t look like we had any of them three.”
United stayed in seventh place, 22 points off leader Manchester City and four off the top four after the most worrying display yet under Rangnick.
“We didn’t play well at all, individually or collectively,” said the German, adding: “The game showed we still have a lot of work to do.”
Rangnick has had a benign start on paper after arriving as a replacement for the fired Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, with three of his four previous league opponents being the bottom three of Norwich, Newcastle and Burnley.
Wolves was the first team from the top half to play Rangnick’s United and there was a gulf in class and team shape.
United’s new coach was supposed to bring a better pressing game to the team, but that isn’t apparent yet.
“We didn’t press at all,” Rangnick said. “We weren’t able to get in pressing situations … this is the big issue.”
A positive for United was a first start in nearly two years in all competitions for Phil Jones, a former England centre back who has struggled with a longstanding right knee injury. He was given a rousing ovation when he made his first clearance and he barely put a foot wrong.
Jones couldn’t mark his return with a clean sheet, though, and it was his clearance that was pounced on by Moutinho for the goal, which made him the oldest visiting player at 35 to score a winner in the Premier League at Old Trafford.
Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa preserved his shutout with a diving save to his right to keep out Bruno Fernandes’ free kick with one of the last acts of the game.
“We came here with a big personality,” Wolves manager Bruno Lage said. “Credit for my team. We came here with a big ambition.”
Fernandes had been the player to come on for Greenwood and, within minutes, struck the crossbar with United’s best chance.
Cristiano Ronaldo, making his 1,100th senior career appearance, also had a goal for United disallowed for offside.
“We have time to refocus back,” Shaw said, referring to the gap to United’s next game – at home to Aston Villa in the FA Cup next Monday. “We’ve got a long training week. And maybe the manager can bring some more ideas that he wants on the pitch.”
The Ministry of Education (MoE) announced that the first round of the Higher Education Centralised Admission System (HECAS) 2022 online application for local higher education institutions (HEIs) and for the Brunei Government Overseas Scholarship for the academic year of 2022/23 opens today at 8.30am.
The local institutions are Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali (UNISSA), Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB) and Politeknik Brunei (PB).
The programmes on offer are Level 5 Diploma, Higher National Diploma and undergraduate degree.
The HECAS online application is open for holders of valid Brunei Darussalam issued identity cards. HECAS does not process applications of civil servants applying for in-service training or foreign applicants who do not have valid Brunei Darussalam issued IC.
Applicants are allowed to use their predicted results to apply to local higher education institutions (UBD, UNISSA and UTB) or for overseas scholarship.
They will receive a conditional offer upon meeting the entry requirement set by the institutions.
It will be closed on the fifth working day after the result announcement of the GCE ‘A’ Level for November 2021 by the Examination Department at the MoE. The actual closing date will be announced later in the HECAS portal.
Before the closing date, applicants are required to settle overdue payments of HECAS registration through BIBD Mobile app or by cash at the payment counter at Tutong Sixth Form Centre and Sultan Hassan Secondary School in Temburong District.
Applicants are also required to fulfil requirements stated in the Institution Checklist.
For information, visit the MoE’s portal at www.moe.gov.bn or the new HECAS portal at hecas.moe.gov.bn.
ANN/THE DAILY STAR – Acne is dreaded by most teens, but by the time you are an adult, its simply an unwelcome guest that’s far outstayed its welcome.
Acne happens for a lot of different reasons and so, many of those reasons overlap one another that you cannot always find the exact culprit.
Our mothers and our grandmothers before them have gone through similar issues and they had no LED face therapies and anti-acne facials to turn to. Their kitchens were their havens and that’s where they mastered the cure to this age-old pesky problem. And that’s exactly where we are heading right now, to give you some tried and tested home remedies to kiss, or rather, kick, acne goodbye!
APPLE CIDER VINEGAR
A mild acidic vinegar, made from the unfiltered juices of pressed apples, is said to have bacteria killing properties that might also reduce inflammation and improve the appearance of the scars caused by acne. While there is no evidence to support the claim that apple cider vinegar directly cures acne, vinegar does fight bacteria and fungi, thereby proving its effectiveness.
HONEY AND CINNAMON
Acne is nothing but bacteria and what can be more potent than honey and cinnamon for that problem? Honey and cinnamon bark have been known to have antibacterial properties and there’s research to prove it.
GREEN TEA
Anyone who knows anything about good health and modern day health elixirs swear by green tea as an antioxidant-packed drink that makes one look younger, lose weight and live a long and healthy life in various other ways.
However, plant-based compounds and antioxidants can also do amazingly when applied directly on acne as they can reduce sebum production and fight inflammation to reduce production of acne on skin. While over-the-counter lotions and creams with green tea extract are widely available, its much simpler to make your own solution at home.
TEA TREE OIL
You may have to venture a little further out of your kitchen for this one but we swear it is worth it. Tea tree oil is an over-the-counter essential oil that can be found at any local pharmacy. With anti-bacterial and anti-microbial properties, this oil works like magic on fungal and bacterial infections as well as inflammations of all sorts.
Extracted from the leaves of Melaleuca alternifolia, a tree endemic to Australia, Tea Tree Oil is less dry on the skin and less irritating than other remedies.
When acne is there, fighting and getting rid of it can be as easy as stepping into your kitchen or the nearest pharmacy. But to really prevent these unsightly zits from even making an appearance, a healthy lifestyle is a must. We can also follow basic skincare rules such as not going to sleep with make up on and exfoliating and moisturising routinely.
MAKE YOUR OWN SOLUTION AT HOME
As adults and high functioning members of society, we may not realistically live entirely stress-free lives which is optimum for good, acne free, healthy skin, we can still try and help our skin by incorporating zinc and omega three fats into our diets and eating foods that have a low glycaemic load and less dairy content.
A simple solution with one-part tea tree oil and nine parts water, applied on the affected area will dry out the acne. For a clingier zit, apply twice a day.
Boil green tea for a good three to four minutes. Allow the mixture to cool. Then pour it into a spray bottle and spritz it on your face as many times as required. Wash once your face has completely dried. The residue of the leaves need not go to waste either. Simply add it to a base of honey and use it as a face mask.
Simply mix one-part vinegar to three (or more for sensitive skin) parts water and apply using a clean cotton ball. Let it dry for 20 seconds before washing off with cool water. Repeat this process up to two times in the day. It is important to note that because apple cider vinegar may cause some irritation, it is important to use it in small quantities and dilute it with adequate amounts of water.
To make this rich paste, mix two tablespoons of honey to one teaspoon of cinnamon powder.
Wash your face and apply the mask. Leave the mask on for 10-15 minutes before washing it off. Be sure to pat the face dry as rubbing may irritate the acne.
ST LOUIS (AP) – Jake Litvag leaned in for a closer look as a lab mouse scurried around an enclosure, stopping to sniff a large block.
“Hi, Jakob 1. I’m Jake,” the 16-year-old said, naming the little furry creature engineered to have the same genetic abnormality he has.
That mouse and its lab-grown relatives are the first in the world to mirror the missing gene that causes Jake’s autism. Scientists at Washington University in St Louis bred the mice, and grew stem cells derived from Jake’s blood, to study and find ways to treat his rare disorder – and look for answers to the larger puzzle of autism.
Jake’s family raised money for the early research, which scientists then parlayed into a USD4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to delve more deeply into Jake’s gene, one of more than 100 implicated in autism. They hope to find “points of convergence” that could someday help people with all forms of the neurodevelopmental condition affecting one in 44 United States (US) children.
Jake knows he inspired their work. And that’s helped him see autism as something to be proud of rather than something that makes him different from other kids. His parents, Joe and Lisa Litvag, figured meeting the scientists – and the mice – would show him firsthand what he had brought into being.
Research assistant Katie McCullough holds a mouse in a Washington University labJake Litvag visits a lab at Washington University where doctors are studying a rare form of autism. PHOTOS: AP
“Oh wow. Cool!” Jake said as he watched a mouse climb down a pole while others scampered in a bin.
Walking out of the lab, tears welled up in Lisa Litvag’s eyes as she thought about the language within her son’s cells helping other kids.
“We’re deeply proud and humbled to be part of this,” said Joe Litvag. “What do we live this life for? It’s ultimately to try to, in one way, shape or form, be of service to others.”
The Litvags realised early on that Jake wasn’t reaching childhood milestones. He couldn’t walk without assistance until he was four. He struggled to string sentences together in first grade.
JAKE’S GIFT
At first, no one could pin down why. Jake had a mix of different traits. He was hyperactive and impulsive but also social, warm and funny. It took until he was five to get a firm diagnosis of autism.
Around that time, the Litvags heard that child psychiatrist Dr John Constantino, an expert on the genetic underpinnings of autism, was giving a talk at the Saint Louis Science Center.
They decided to go in the hopes of meeting him. They did, and he began seeing Jake as a patient.
About five years later, Constantino proposed genetic testing. It revealed the missing copy of the MYT1L gene believed to cause one out of every 10,000 to 50,000 autism cases. Having an extra copy can cause schizophrenia.
The finding brought the family peace. They’d heard lots of people say autism was mostly caused by external factors, like birth trauma. “For a long time,” Lisa Litvag said, “I thought it was something that I did.”
Actually, a large multinational study suggests that up to 80 per cent of the risk for autism can be traced to inherited genes.
“One of the big things it did for us as a family is it made us realise that it’s nothing that we did wrong,” Joe Litvag said. “It’s just that people are born all the time” with genetic differences.
The couple, whose younger son Jordan doesn’t have the condition, talked openly with Jake about his autism and tried to bolster his self-esteem when he worried about being seen as different. They sent him to a small private school that tailors its curriculum to each child’s learning abilities. And they encouraged his social tendencies, cheering him on when he and some classmates formed a band, the Snakes.
“We never wanted him to feel there was shame around his diagnosis,” Lisa Litvag said. “We continued to kind of reinforce that this is a superpower, you are special, you are awesome … and because you have autism, there are gifts you have to give other people.”
GIFTS BLOSSOM
When Constantino suggested studying the little-understood MYT1L gene, the Litvags enthusiastically agreed to help. Constantino – who is on the local board of a group they’ve long been active in called Autism Speaks – asked if they’d be interested in raising money for early research.
Joe Litvag, an executive in the live music industry, and Lisa Litvag, a partner in a marketing firm, reached out to family and friends and raised the USD70,000 needed in about six months.
With half the money, researcher Kristen Kroll and her team reprogrammed cells from Jake’s blood into “induced pluripotent stem cells”, which can be prodded into becoming various cell types. With the other half, scientist Joseph Dougherty and his team followed the blueprint of Jake’s genome and induced his mutation in mice using the gene-editing tool CRISPR.
Like the people they’re meant to model, mice with the mutation tended to be more hyperactive than siblings without it, running around their cages much more. They were nonetheless generally heavier, especially the first generation of mice. They had slightly smaller brains and a little less of the white matter that speeds communication between different brain regions.
Since starting the research about three years ago, scientists have bred around 100 mice with Jake’s mutation and are now using the great-great grandchildren of the first one they engineered. They recently published about the mice in the journal Neuron.
COLOMBO (AFP) – Sri Lanka unveiled a USD1.1-billion targetted relief package yesterday to help consumers pay soaring food costs as an economic crisis bites.
The island’s tourism-dependent economy was hammered by the pandemic and rampant shortages have left its people struggling to buy essential goods.
Supermarkets have been rationing milk powder, sugar, lentils and other essentials, with food prices rising by a record 22 per cent last month.
More than two million state employees and pensioners will be given a living allowance of LKR60,000 (USD300) this year to deal with the rising cost of living.
Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa also announced subsidies for home gardens, with crop yields expected to fall further after a disastrous campaign to make Sri Lanka the world’s first 100 per cent organic farming nation.
A customer buying vegetables at a market near Colombo, Sri Lanka. PHOTO: AFP
“We want to encourage a big homegrown agriculture drive this year by encouraging people to grow their own food,” he said.
Rajapaksa did not say how the government would finance the package of LKR229 billion (USD1.14 billion), which comes two months after the unveiling of a drastic austerity budget designed to rein in a runaway deficit.
Last year’s ban on agrochemical imports worsened food shortages by causing crop failures and prompting farmers to leave nearly a third of the island’s agricultural fields dormant.
The policy was lifted after protests by farmers but its consequences have sparked discord in Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition.
Yesterday, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa sacked a minister who had criticised the organic farming drive and called for the removal of the agriculture minister, a close ally of the leader.
TOKYO (AP) – Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed yesterday to speed up coronavirus vaccine booster shots, secure imported supplies of drugs to treat COVID-19 and re-organise medical facilities to respond to the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
Kishida, who took office in October, said he had ordered strict border controls from November to buy time for such preparations. Japan has basically shut out incoming travel except for returning residents and Japanese nationals.
The response to the contagious Omicron variant will now shift to domestic measures, such as making free coronavirus tests more readily available, while border controls will continue, he said.
“I just offered prayers so that we may overcome the coronavirus pandemic and this year will be a fantastic year for all of you,” he told reporters in Mie Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo.
Japanese leaders visit the picturesque shrine complex at the start of every year, although Kishida’s predecessor Yoshihide Suga cancelled it last year because of the pandemic.
Kishida said the oral drug from Merck has been distributed to thousands of hospitals, and efforts were underway to procure the Pfizer oral drug as well, for use starting next month in treating symptomatic coronavirus cases.
“I want to make this year one of dramatic challenges to forge ahead with a new era. But in areas where we need to exercise caution, we must not forget the humility to proceed with caution,” Kishida added, noting care was needed for a proper pandemic response.
He said everyone who tests positive for COVID-19 and needs hospitalisation will be speedily admitted for treatment, while those who can recover at home should do so, monitored by medical professionals. Other facilities will also be readied for those who don’t need to be hospitalised but need to quarantine, depending on symptoms, he said.
