US Geological Survey reports that the source of the earthquake occurred 19km North West of Ranau.
The earthquake with magnitude 6.0 occurred near Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia at 7.15am today.
The tremor lasted for 30 seconds.
According to Ranau police, damages caused by the tremors to building nearby appear minimal, with several business premises in Ranau town reporting shattered windows.
Source: www.theborneopost.com
South Korea Friday reported its fourth death from an outbreak of the MERS virus that has infected dozens of people, seen hundreds of schools closed and caused thousands to cancel travel plans.
The health ministry had also confirmed five new cases, Yonhap news agency reported, bringing the total number of people diagnosed with the potentially deadly virus in South Korea to 41, the largest outbreak outside Saudi Arabia.
The latest fatality was a 76-year-old patient who died Thursday after testing positive for the virus on May 21, Yonhap said.
That case comes shortly after the country’s third MERS death was confirmed Thursday, that of an 82-year-old man who was diagnosed after he died in hospital on Wednesday night.
He was originally being treated for asthma and pneumonia but was placed under quarantine after other patients in his ward tested positive for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
More than 900 schools, from kindergartens to colleges, have now shut their gates and the government’s MERS hotline took more than 3,000 calls on Wednesday as public fears have grown.
Before Thursday only two people — a 58-year-old woman and a 71-year-old man — had died in South Korea from the disease, which has no cure or vaccine.
The first case, reported on May 20, was of a 68-year-old man diagnosed after a trip to Saudi Arabia.
Since then, more than 1,660 people who may have been exposed to the virus have been placed under varying levels of quarantine.
While around 160 were isolated at state-designated facilities, most were told to stay home and strictly limit their interactions with other people.
MERS has now infected more than 1,100 people globally, with 437 deaths. More than 20 countries have been affected, with most cases in Saudi Arabia.
The virus is considered a deadlier but less infectious cousin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed hundreds of people when it appeared in Asia in 2003.
The World Health Organization said it expected more infections in South Korea, but stressed that there was “no evidence of sustained transmission in the community”.
Source: www.scmp.com
This is the look you want if you wanna act like you’re thinking about something deep at the smoking corner. Even better if you’ve a pair of shades, put it on and look far macam you thinking how to grow Singapore’s GDP by 5% this year, but actually you thinking what to eat for lunch.
This pose is especially useful when you’re smoking with your colleagues/bosses because putting a hand on your waist shows that you’re tired, which indirectly signals that you’ve been working hard in office. Good when promotion is round the corner.
This pose is especially useful if you’ve a wall behind you, so just lean back, cross your arm, straighten out your smoking hand, and look cool. Doesn’t matter if you actually bring your hand up to take a puff, the main point is to just look cool only.
You know how some people like to strike up a conversation with you when you’re smoking? This is the perfect pose, with a phone in hand to signal that NO, mouth not available for talking, only for smoking/taking a puff.
Source: http://sgag.sg
To be a respected race, the Malays have to return to their roots. You don’t need to change your clothes or your culinary tastes but only change your minds. Discard the feudal thinking. Be modern, rational – not western, not Semitic.
The irony is that the good customs that the Malays should keep they discard; those that should be changed they retain like the way they have to cringe and debase, calling themselves vermin and dogs, every time they come face to face with their Sultans.
To his credit, Mahathir refused to indulge in such self-deprecating un-Islamic language during his long tenure as PM. The Sultans know better than to insist otherwise.
I agree that choice of dressing and greeting is personal. If someone wants to walk the Semitic path, that’s their privilege and there really is no harm at all.
What I disagree is the simplistic notion among some Muslims in this part of the world that behaving like Arabs bring them closer to the Lord and paradise. Some even seem to elevate such dressing into a cardinal principle of the faith.
Islam does not belong to the Arabs or to the Malays. It is a universal religion; a gift to mankind. Do not diminish its appeal and reduce the faith into one fit only for the kampungs and the fearful, and for the bigots and the psychopaths.
A good Muslim must also be a good human being, someone who is charitable, honourable, responsible, and upholds universal values that are shared across all ethnic and religious boundaries.
All religions, especially the established ones, face the same challenge: How to enhance faith in their set of theological beliefs and at the same time encourage their faithful to become more spiritual and better human beings?
In the case of the Muslims, I see many getting trapped in the religiosity of the faith, obsessed with the rituals and practices, the dos and don’ts and the can and cannot as laid down by long forgotten figures from the distant past.
As a result, instead of becoming more spiritual and better human beings as they should be, they sometimes end up the opposite – the result of not practicing the rituals as a means to a more enlighten goal but as an end in themselves.
For instance, the tudung is supposed to reflect the outward manifestation of an inner faith and not just a must-use piece of female attire to satisfy public opinion or to identify oneself with a particular religious group.
But obviously this is not always the case, judging by the number of women in traditional head garb going behind bars for CBT or abusing their maids or some other crimes.
How also to explain the endless supply of Sunnis volunteering for suicide missions? And mind you, not against infidels or imperialists but against fellow Muslims such as the long oppressed Syiahs.
We cannot sweep under the mat these mindless acts as just the work of mentally unstable individuals or the sub-normal or the misguided fanatics. We have to raise and ask the pertinent questions.
We cannot keep on excusing such actions by saying ‘tis the singer not the song. The time has come when we have to ask: Could it perhaps be a defect in the song? Or is it the way the song has been sung by the Al-Sauds that turns a perfect divine song into a defective one?
We also have to ask the extent of culpability of the community for the acts of these individuals. Do we, perhaps, because of our obsession with religious practices unwittingly provide cover to the suicide bombers and the foolish youths seeking martyrdom?
They cannot exist in a vacuum. Like fish that need water, these people could only survive in a sea of irrational religiosity, lying dormant most of the time until tipped over the precipice. We have to identify respectively both the push and pull factors.
The Islamic religious authority too appears to be trapped in the same religiosity syndrome. I have yet to hear any local preacher or a Friday sermon making the connection between religious rituals and, moral and ethical values.
Actually, as many atheists have demonstrated you don’t need to belong to any faith to become a good human being. Likewise, you don’t need to be very religious in your particular faith to travel the path of enlightenment.
To me, religion, unless accompanied by high moral and ethical standards, is quite meaningless, and this holds true for all believers irrespective of what faith they adhere to.
Religion is not meant just for the next world. The guidelines drawn up by the founders, the values they espouse and the obligations they impose on their followers are meant more to make life in this world more pleasant for all mankind.
If practised in the right spirit, fasting, the five daily prayers, ritual cleansing will not only be a joy but also bring immediate health benefits to the faithful; regard anything else that you may accrue for the next world as a bonus.
I believe if you take care of your life in this world, the next world will take care of it. You don’t have to worry needlessly.
But Muslims, especially Malays, are a fearful lot when it comes to religious practice. One of their greatest fears in life is the ‘’takut aqidah rosak’’ (fear of their faith being undermined or corrupted) syndrome.
That’s why many become blind followers, accepting everything thrown at them and reluctant to take any initiative on religious practice without first getting the blessings of their ulamas.
Source: Ismail Kassim
Question: Are the followers of Qadiani considered as kafir?
Answer: In the discussion over this matter, a book entitled “Anjam Atham”, written in Urdu-Arabic by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad himself, was referred to. This is the only book that is recognised by the followers of Ahmadiyah in Singapore and Malaysia. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is not only a kafir who is murtad, his teachings are misleading and could lead people astray from the real teachings of Islam. The following extracts from the book is clear proof that he is not Muslim and no longer an adherent of the religion.
1. “Oh Ahmad (Mirza) how perfect is your name and my name is imperfect (Allah)”
2. “Truly We (Allah) had delivered it (The Qur’an) near the Qadian.”
3. “Allah praises you (Mirza) from His Arasy and Allah comes walking to face you (Mirza).”
4. “You (Mirza) come from Our sperm (Allah).”
5. “As if Allah came from the heavens, His name is Manuwel.”
6. “Whichever man who does not place his faith in me (Mirza) they are all kafir and the future tenants of Hell.”
Apart from these statements, there are other statements and declarations made by Ghulam Ahmad which proves that he is no longer a Muslim. Al’allamah Ash-Shaikh Muhammad Anuar Al-Kashmiri in his book “Ikfarul Mulhidin” stated that Ghulam Ahmad had made 77 statements, which leads to him being kafir.
The most important statement of all, which forms the basis that Ghulam Ahmad and his followers are kafir, is his declaration that he is the next Prophet and Messenger after Prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h..
This clearly transgresses the teachings of the Qur’an, the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad and the consensus (ijma’) of the ulama’. This is supported by the fatwa given by the Mufti of Johor which is found in his book “Anwarul Qur’an Al-Mahiyati Lizulumatimutanabbien Qadiyan” (Volume 3, pages 1- 4). Based on the beliefs of the Qadiyan as explained above, it is concluded that the Qadiyan (Ahmadiyah) and those who are similar to them are not Muslims and are deviant. This is in line with the fatwas issued by all other Islamic countries, that the Ahmadiyah Qadiyan are not considered to be within the folds of Islam. The bodies of their dead cannot be buried in Muslim burial grounds.
Fatwa decided by the Fatwa Committee of MUIS on 23 June 1969. Fatwa text appeared in Kumpulan Fatwa 1 published by Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura, 1st ed. 1987.
Source: http://officeofthemufti.sg