KOTA KINABALU: Rebecca Chin could not have imagined how a personal food drive for the overworked healthcare workers in Sabah would later turn into a full-fledged daily mission.

Chin had felt helpless looking at Sabah’s tired healthcare workers, who have been battered by record-high numbers of Covid-19 cases, and had wanted to give something back to the frontliners.

She spoke to her friends Kathie and Shone Majimbun, a husband-and-wife team who run Shoney’s, an eatery in town, and they immediately jumped at the chance to help out.

“They quickly agreed to help and with that the catering service to frontliners started on Oct 20. We had enough food to deliver free hot lunches for three days. However, Kathie then told me that several of her friends wanted to chip in as well,” said Chin.

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IPOH: Owners of business premises and private buildings will not be issued with fines or compound notices for not flying the state flag or lighting their buildings in conjunction with the birthday of the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Shah, next Friday, the state government said.

Perak state secretary Ahmad Suaidi Abdul Rahim said all efforts to encourage business premises and private building owners to do so should be done prudently.

“All efforts to instill the spirit of loyalty to the Sultan of Perak among the people must be done wisely and diplomatically so that authentic loyalty is ingrained in the people,” he said in a statement here today.

Ahmad Suaidi said government buildings, educational institutions and schools should fly the state flag while business premises and private buildings including houses of worship are encouraged to do so voluntarily.


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• In the third quarter of 2020, Huawei shipped 51.7 million smartphones, down 23% year-on-year, according to a Canalys.
  
• Huawei lost its crown as the world’s biggest smartphone maker, after gaining the title in the second quarter of the year. Samsung overtook Huawei.
  
• Xiaomi meanwhile saw shipments rise as it took customers from Huawei. 
  

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 — Cinema operators in Malaysia have come to the decision to temporarily suspend operations at all their cinemas nationwide.

The Malaysian Association of Film Exhibitors (MAFE) announced it is collectively suspending operations, but will continue to monitor the Covid-19 situation and react accordingly as market conditions improve.

MAFE vice-president Cheah Chun Wai said the primary reason for the closures is the recent conditional movement control order (CMCO) implemented in several states, as well as a lack of new movies released in the short term.

“Ordinarily these new movies are essential to attract moviegoers back to the cinemas,” he said in a statement.


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Emmert International was contracted to move this Historical Building in downtown Salt Lake City, UT. The Odd Fellows Building was considered a historical building and unable to be demolished, with the expansion of the court house needed this building needed to be moved. Other companies in this industry called this project impossible, Emmert International Proved otherwise and moved the building without any issues or problems.

PETALING JAYA: A political analyst says an “all-out war” between Umno and PPBM is inevitable and will likely happen once the Covid-19 situation in the country improves.

Speaking to FMT, Kamarul Zaman Yusoff of Universiti Utara Malaysia said Umno’s reiteration that it was committed to a political ceasefire would ensure its support for Budget 2021 which will be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat next week.

“But the writing is on the wall, there will be an all-out war between Umno and PPBM,” he said.

Kamarul was commenting on Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s statement after last night’s five-hour Supreme Council meeting that the party wants a general election once the Covid-19 pandemic is under control.


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In the past, coffee was associated with increased health risks. But research from the last decade finds that drinking coffee may actually benefit your health.

Caffeine is the most popular psychoactive drug in the world. Humans have been drinking coffee, a natural source of caffeine, for centuries, but there have been mixed messages around its effect on human health for decades.

“Traditionally, coffee has been seen as a bad thing,” says Marc Gunter, head of the section of nutrition and metabolism at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). “Research from the 1980s and 90s concluded that people who drank coffee had a higher risk of cardiovascular disease – but it’s evolved since then.”

With more, larger-scale population studies emerging over the last decade, Gunter says, scientists now have data from hundreds of thousands of coffee-drinkers. But what does the research tell us – and is coffee consumption providing health benefits, or risks?


Coffee has been associated with an increased risk of cancer because it contains acrylamide, a carcinogenic substance found in foods including toast, cakes and chips. However, the IARC concluded in 2016 that coffee is not carcinogenic, unless it’s drunk very hot – above 65C (149F).

Not only that, but more research has found that coffee may actually have a protective effect. Some studies have shown an association between coffee drinking and lower severity, and recurrence, of colon cancer in patients, for example.

In 2017, Gunter published the results of a study that looked at the coffee-drinking habits of half a million people across Europe over a period of 16 years. Those who drank more coffee had a lower risk of dying from heart disease, stroke and cancer. These findings are consistent with research from other parts of the world, including the US.

Gunter says there’s enough consensus across observational studies to confirm that people who drink up to four cups of coffee a day have fewer diseases compared to those who don’t drink any.

The potential benefit of coffee could go further. Coffee-drinkers in Gunter’s study were more likely to smoke and had unhealthier diets than non-coffee drinkers. This would suggest that if coffee does lower the risk of heart disease and cancer, it might be more powerful than we think – it’s overriding the effects of unhealthy behaviours.


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PETALING JAYA: A political analyst expects former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to face an uphill task in his effort to bring political parties together in a unity government.

Azmi Hassan, a former lecturer with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, said a unity government, by definition, would need to be composed of all parties that have representation in Parliament.

“There are still sentiments in Umno that Tun can’t be trusted and this feeling also runs in PKR,” he told FMT.

He said “that’s the very reason” he believed a unity government with Mahathir at the helm would be difficult to establish.

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