6 theSun | MONDAY JANUARY 5 2009

news without borders

15-year-old
detained over
snatch thefts

No first-day blues for

MUAR: While his classmates start their peared at ease amongst strangers, said
school term today, a 15-year-old student will he was happy to be attending school.
be idling in a police lockup here. “I like school because I can learn my
The boy and a 24-year-old man were favourite subject – English – and play
picked up by police in the Maharani apart- football,” he said.
ments on Jalan Sulaiman here on Wednesday Mageswari Arumugam, 45, said her
on suspicion of committing snatch thefts. daughter Gunavathi Murugiah is quite

eager Year One pupils

Muar OCPD ACP Mohd Nasir Ramli told
reporters yesterday police recovered from
a suspect a 20cm-long “Rambo” knife
believed to have been used during snatch
thefts.
“We are also investigating whether they
were involved in other crimes in the district,”
he said.
On another case, Mohd Nasir said the
Muar police narcotics division arrested a
man in his 30s and seized various drugs in
a raid on a house in Taman Bakri Indah here
on Saturday.
Among the seized items were 62 packets
of heroin, eight packets of syabu, two
packets of marijuana, 400 Eramine Five pills,
42 Ecstasy pills, a closed-circuit television
camera, cash registers and plastic packets
believed to be used for packaging drugs.
– Bernama
30,000 students in Kels
independent and able to adjust to new
environments easily.
“I am not scared to go to school
because it is fun to be with friends,”
Gunavathi said.
Manikandan Mithran Thasrathan
and his best friend Viknachandran
by Karen Arukesamy Unlike first-graders of the past who Balachandran both look forward to
newsdesk@thesundaily.com would cry and cling to their parents on making more friends.
the first day, children today are more “I am happy to be in the same class
PETALING JAYA: It’s the first day of excited and keen to go to school. as my friend Manikandan. We were also
school for half a million Year One pupils Pupils in Terengganu, Kelantan and classmates in kindergaten,” Viknachan-
across the country who began their for- Kedah started schooling yesterday. For dran said.
mal education yesterday and today. other states, school starts today. Among the new faces at the Tamil
A check at schools showed parents A visit to SJK (T) Vivekananda, Pe- school was Jamie Gabriela Arputham,
busy registering their children, checking taling Jaya yesterday showed cheerful who is of mixed parentage and keen to
classrooms and meeting teachers during seven-year-olds running around the learn Tamil.
orientation, which in some schools were school compound, walking in and out “We didn’t force her to go to any par-
conducted over a few days. of classrooms and appearing quite com- ticular school but we asked for her prefer-
fortable in the new setting. ence and she was happy to go to Tamil
“I am happy to go to school,” said her mother Jean Lorraine
school because I can get Pharamond, 36, who is Eurasian.
antan
new friends and learn a School principal S. Balamohan said
lot,” said Jeyashantini seeing a frightened child who wants his

unable to attend clas

Thiruvaluvar, whose parent to be near all the time is becoming
and Tan ah Merah ambition is to become a rare sight.
Kra i, Kot a Bar u
30,000 stu- a teacher.
KOTA BARU: Some distric ts.
ts in 38 sch ool s in Kelantan ce the pas t few day s Her mother, Jegath-
den ir first “Rain sin
abl e to att end the sur rou nding the iswari Suparamanian,
were not has caused areas
day as the 33, said Jeyashantini
day of school yester sch ool s to be fl ood ed.
due to the ion De- (right pix) was very
schools were closed “The Kelantan Educat
s follow ing hea vy rain for the dir ect ed sch ool s in eager to go to
fl ood partment has
day s. to be shu t dow n school and
past few r Mohd the affected
areas
State education directo avo id any unt ow ard incident,” he was not
said the af- to nama afraid of
Ghazali Ab Rahman en con tac ted by Ber
prising 33 said wh being left
fected schools, com
ry sch ool s and fi ve second- yesterday. ool s wo uld re- with her
prima
Pasir Mas, He said the sch peers.
ary schools, were in the ope n onc e the wa ter has receded.
pat, Kuala Bubbly Tharvin
Rantau Panjang, Tum
Baskar, who also ap-

Zahid: OIC needs peace-keeping force

KUALA LUMPUR: The time is ripe
for the Organisation of the Islamic
Conference (OIC) to form a peace-
keeping force to be deployed in
troubled Islamic nations like Pales-
tine, Minister in the Prime Minister’s
Department Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad
Zahid Hamidi said yesterday.
He said apart from joining
forces to boycott Israel and US
goods, as suggested by former
prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir
Mohamad on Saturday, the world
Islamic community had to combine
its strength to form a peace-keep-
ing force.
“We have to use the existing
premise, which is the OIC. We need
to do more on a united front.
“Not all OIC nations would be
favourable to this idea but if we
have the majority, then why not?”
he told reporters after opening the
Ade Nasution Centre here.
He said the United Nations
and the UN Security Council were
not playing their role effectively
in curbing the Israel-Palestine
conflict, which had resulted in the
deaths of thousands of innocent
civilians.
He said the OIC peace-keeping
force could also be asked to work
hand-in-hand with the North At-
lantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) to
enforce peace in troubled regions, if
the need arose.
“This is an idea which could be
explored. It must first be accepted
by the heads of OIC states. There
is an urgent need for the OIC to
convene a special summit for this
purpose,” he said.
Zahid said he would bring up
this proposal to Foreign Minister
Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim in the next
cabinet meeting on Wednesday so
“he can raise it at any OIC forum he
attends in due course”.
The Ade Nasution centre was
formed on Nov 19 last year in an
effort to get some 950,000 regis-
tered Indonesian voters working
in this country to exercise their
democratic right in the Indonesian
elections slated for April 9.