The price of fuel and sugar will go up from midnight tonight as part of the Najib administration’s ongoing drive to reduce subsidies, but it is fraught with political risks as he mulls early elections next year.

The price of RON95 will increase by five sen to RM1.90 per litre, diesel by five sen per litre to RM1.80 and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by five sen to RM1.90 per kg. Sugar will also cost 20 sen more at RM2.10 per kg.

Through these price hikes, the government expects to save subsidy payments of RM621.9 million on RON95, RM213.2 million on diesel, RM63.5 million on LPG and RM283.5 million on sugar a year, or a total of RM1.18 billion annually.

RON97 will remain on a managed float based on market prices.

This is the second wave of subsidy cuts following the first round of hikes on July 16, when prices went up by five sen per litre for petrol and diesel, 10 sen per kg for LPG and 20 sen per kg for sugar.
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Technorati Tags: diesel, gas, liquefied petroleum gas, oil, petrol, price hike, ron95, subsidy, sugar

A sophisticated Malaysian cyber bandit hacked into the US Federal Reserve’s computers and also stole nearly half a million credit and debit card numbers, US prosecutors in New York said.

Lin Mun Poo, a Malaysian resident and citizen, was arrested on October 21 soon after entering the United States and was indicted by grand jury Thursday, the US attorney’s office in Brooklyn said.

He allegedly hacked into the Cleveland, Ohio branch of the Fed, the US central bank, and in separate attacks also stole more than 400,000 card numbers, as well as breaching the defenses of numerous other systems.

Poo, who is being held in pre-trial detention, “made a career of compromising computer servers belonging to financial institutions, defense contractors, and major corporations, among others, and selling or trading the information,” the US attorney’s office said.

The US Secret Service arrested the 32-year-old a few hours after he flew to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
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Technorati Tags: Computers, credit cards, cyber bandit, debit cards, lim mun poo, Malaysian Hacked, US Federal Reserve

The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) today announced that Malaysia is in the midst of implementing a new public cellular phone numbering format which is 3 + 8. The announcement was made at a briefing held at MCMC Headquarters which was attended by industry members, regulatory bodies, the media, consumer forums and interested parties. The briefing sought to enhance participants understanding of the new public cellular numbering system.

The new public cellular phone numbering will take off with the prefix-011 followed by eight digit numbers (011 1XXX XXXX), set to be launched on 15 December 2010.

This is one of the long-term planning measures undertaken by MCMC after taking into consideration that the existing public cellular phone numbering format of 3 + 7 is running out and will not be able to support and accommodate the demands from the industry in the near future. This new implementation is also a result of the increase in the number of cellular service providers and the potential of various service applications which will be made available due to the advancement of communication technologies.
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Technorati Tags: 011, 3 + 8, celcom, cellular phone, digi, eight digit, handphone, maxis, mcmc, mobile phone, new format, new number, phone numbering, tunetalk

Universiti Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia and Universiti Putra Malaysia have retained their status as research universities for another three years beginning this year, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said.

He said the decision to retain their research university status was based on the audit report of their performance for the year 2007 to 2009.

“Generally, the four research universities have given a significant impact on achievements in research and churning out human capital in the country.

“Their achievements were gauged based on four aspects, namely, human capital, publication, patent and intellectual property rights (IPR) and income generating,” he told reporters after the ministry’s monthly assembly here Tuesday.

He said that in terms of human capital, the number of post-graduate students in the four universities showed an increase of 34 per cent, from 29,794 in 2007 to 39,819 last year.

“In terms of publication, the number of publications in the citation index increased from 2,303 in 2007 to 4,346 in 2009, which is an increase of 2,043 or 89 per cent,” he added.

He said a nine per cent increase in IPR was recorded in 2007 at 217 to 237 last year and in terms of income, the amount generated increased to RM746.7 million last year from RM436 million in 2007.

Source : BERNAMA

Technorati Tags: research universities, ukm, UM, universiti kebangsaan malaysia, universiti putra malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, university malaya, upm, usm

This article was written by Mohd Khuzairi Ismail and published at Utusan Malaysia on July 20, 2010.

There was a fuss sometime ago when the number of female students going to institutions of higher learning for the 2009/2010 year exceeded the male students.

From the 40,366 candidates offered to do their first degree at public institutions of higher learning (IPTA) since last June , 65 per cent or 26,200 people were female students.

However, it is nothing unusual because since the past few years, the trend of female students dominating the IPT is normal. It happened in countries where women have equal access to education system.

But, there are other matters than the total number of new students to IPTA which should be our concern. According to racial composition, 27,829 of them are bumiputera, 10,116 are Chinese and the remaining 2,421 comprise the Indians and others,

In principle, the number of bumiputera students is still high, but what is not seen is the actual breakdown of the students that are able to go to IPTA based on meritocracy.

Since 2003, the intake of students to IPTA is no longer based on the quota of 55 per cent for bumiputera and 45 per cent to the non-bumiputera. The meritocracy introduced by the government gives equal opportunity for students of all races.
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Technorati Tags: bumiputera, Chinese, Indians, intake, ipta, meritocracy, racial composition, uitm, university

Seven public and 11 private institutions of higher learning (IPTs) have attained an excellent rating in the Rating System for Institutions of Higher Learning (Setara) 2009.

The public IPTs are International Islamic University Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Malaya, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Mara, said Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

He said the private IPTs were Multimedia University, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Sunway University College, Curtin University of Technology (Sarawak campus), Monash University (Sunway campus), Taylor’s University College, International Medical University, Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak campus), Nottingham University (Malaysian campus) and Management and Science University.

Twenty-five universities and university colleges, of which 14 private IPTs and 11 public IPTS, were rated very good while four private IPTs were rated good, he told reporters here Monday.
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Technorati Tags: ipta, ipts, MQA, SETARA, universiti rating, university