INDIA sudah BOLEH, Malaysia...?

....Malaysia pun MUSTI mau BOLEH jugak...

Agence France-Presse - 10/22/2008 4:29 AM GMT
India launches first moon mission
India successfully launched its first lunar mission Wednesday, marking a major boost for the country's space programme and a new step in the fast-developing Asian space race.
There were cheers in mission control as the unmanned lunar orbiting spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 was launched with an Indian-built rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on the southeastern coast.
Officials said the lift-off, which took place in cloudy skies at 6:22 am (0052 GMT), was a "great success", with the rocket placing the craft into a transfer orbit around the globe within 19 minutes.
"Our scientific community has once again done the country proud and the entire nation salutes them," India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a message.
The head of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Madhavan Nair, said it was a "historic moment" for the country.
"It has been a remarkable performance by the launch vehicle," he said of the lift-off from the national space centre, in the state of Andhra Pradesh and 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Chennai.
ISRO is sending the Chandrayaan-1 on a two-year orbital mission to provide a detailed map of the mineral, chemical and topographical characteristics of the moon's surface. It is expected to reach lunar orbit in 15 days.
The mission, which will also include the sending of a probe onto the lunar surface, will cost India 80 million dollars.
"Today what we have charted is a remarkable journey for an Indian spacecraft to go to the moon and try to unravel the mysteries of the Earth's closest celestial body and its only natural satellite," Nair said.
India is hoping the mission will boost its space programme into the same league as regional powerhouses Japan and China.
As well as looking to carve out a larger slice of the lucrative commercial satellite launch market, India, Japan and China also see their space programmes as an important symbol of their international stature and economic development.
The launch was carried live on most Indian television channels -- with one channel using the emotive theme music for "Star Wars" to accompany the count down.
Some critics, however, have questioned the sense in spending so much money on space when hundreds of millions of Indians still live in dire poverty.
India started its space programme in 1963, developing its own satellites and launch vehicles to reduce dependence on overseas agencies.

Details, click subject

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Awaiting Malaysia's first ROKET to be launched...

PM to Quit in March 2009

Agence France-Presse - 10/8/2008 10:56 AM GMT
Malaysian PM to quit next March
Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Wednesday he will step down next March and hand power to his deputy, ending months of uncertainty since disastrous general elections.
Abdullah has been under intense pressure to quit since leading the Barisan Nasional coalition to its worst polls performance in half a century, losing a third of parliamentary seats and five states to the opposition.
The premier said he expected his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which leads the multi-racial coalition, to select Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak for the top job in a leadership vote next March.
"I will hand over power to... Najib after he wins the election at the general assembly. I am sure he will win," Abdullah told a press conference, calling on the party to halt months of destructive bickering.
"It is not the time for us to indulge in infighting or engage in narrow politics, it is now time for us to strengthen our unity and co-operate among ourselves and place the interests of the country above all."
The president of UMNO -- which has dominated Malaysian politics since independence from Britain in 1957 -- by tradition automatically becomes prime minister of the country.
Abdullah, 68, originally wanted to hand over to Najib in mid-2010 but was forced to review his departure date as he lost support from the ruling party's grassroots, which was stunned by the March election results.
He also faced a challenge from opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who says he has enough support from defecting lawmakers to topple the government, but is being blocked from forming a new administration.
Abdullah came to power in 2003 and was initially buoyed by a groundswell of support for his promises of reform after two decades of hardline rule under veteran premier Mahathir Mohamad.
However, he was quickly seen as weak and ineffective after failing to tackle corruption, high crime rates and inefficient bureaucracy which he had vowed to address.
Abdullah insisted Wednesday he still intended to fulfil his promises, and pledged to give more power to the anti-corruption body and create a new commission to appoint judges who are currently picked by the premier.
The political vacuum since the elections has paralysed foreign investment and suppressed trade on the stock exchange, in a malaise which is now being worsened by the global economic crisis.
UMNO vice-president Mohamad Ali Rustam, a possible contender for the newly vacated deputy premier's post, said the announcement would revitalise the party which has been in disarray since the elections.
"This will unite UMNO and Barisan Nasional so that we can win the next election. I hope all UMNO members will support Najib," he said. "Najib has to regain public confidence for the Barisan Nasional."
UMNO represents the interests of the country's Muslim Malay majority, and its coalition partners representing ethnic Chinese and Indians were wiped out in the elections which saw minorities flock to Anwar's opposition.
"Barisan Nasional's challenge is to see how it can concretely carry out reforms. BN needs rebranding. It has to change its attitude and approach," said Koh Tsu Koon, chief of the Chinese-based Gerakan party.
"The next general elections is not going to be easy unless we really, really reform," he added.
Political observers said Najib faced a massive task to revitalise the government which is seen as out of touch and riddled with corruption and cronyism.
"He certainly will want to portray himself as a reformer, he will need to do that in order to survive, but voter patience is a lot thinner now than a few years ago," said Ibrahim Suffian from the Merdeka Centre research firm.
"With the advent of a new leader they might salvage some sort of hope and credibility," he said.

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Fade to Black (Metallica)
..Life it seems will fade away
..Drifting further every day
..Getting lost within myself
..Nothing matters no one else
..I have lost the will to live
..Simply nothing more to give
..There is nothing more for me
..Need the end to set me free
...
...
...

Israeli PM Resigned

Agence France-Presse - 9/21/2008 8:45 AM GMT
Israel's Olmert resigns amid lingering turmoil
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced his resignation on Sunday, but the political uncertainty gripping Israel and casting a shadow over US-backed Middle East peace talks is far from over.
"I have decided to end my functions as prime minister of the government of Israel," Olmert told a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, days after Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was elected leader of their centrist Kadima party.
"I hope that Tzipi Livni will succeed in forming a national government with the composition she wants," Olmert said in remarks broadcast on television. "For my part I will help her with all my strength."
Olmert must still submit his resignation to President Shimon Peres, who will grant Livni 42 days to form a new government and avert snap general elections, which polls indicate would bring the right-wing Likud party to power.
Olmert is meanwhile likely to stay on as interim premier until a new government is sworn in, which could take several months.
The Kadima leadership result confirms Livni's meteoric rise to become the most powerful woman in Israel and could now see her follow in the footsteps of Golda Meir, the country's first woman prime minister.
The turmoil unleashed by several graft allegations dogging Olmert threatens to derail already sluggish US-backed peace talks with the Palestinians that were relaunched last November but have made little tangible progress since.
Olmert has been battling a wave of corruption allegations for several months, and on July 30 he said he would step down once a new leader was chosen in the unprecedented party vote.
As foreign minister, Livni has led negotiations with the Palestinians, which were formally relaunched 10 months ago with the stated goal of ending the decades-old conflict by the end of the year.
But the two sides remain deeply divided on core issues, including final borders, Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the future status of Jerusalem and the fate of some 4.6 million Palestinian refugees.
The negotiations could complicate Livni's efforts to form a new coalition, with the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party -- a key partner in Olmert's administration -- having vowed to quit the government if Jerusalem is even discussed.
Shas leader Eli Yishai also called for a big rise in family grants, something Livni has up to now rejected.
The Palestinians want mostly-Arab east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in the 1967 Six Day War, as the capital of their future state.
Israel, however, considers the entire city to be its "eternal, undivided" capital, a claim not recognised by the international community.

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Israeli Protesters Demand That Prime Minister Resign
Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, May 4, 2007

TEL AVIV, May 3 -- Tens of thousands of Israelis assembled Thursday in Rabin Square, the customary venue for this country's public soul-searching, to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over his alleged mismanagement of the war in Lebanon last summer.
But the crowd appeared smaller than organizers had predicted, highlighting the sense of complacency that many of Olmert's sharpest critics contend has swept Israel during a time of prosperity at home and enduring threats abroad.

Tens of thousands of Israelis pack Tel Aviv's Rabin Square to call for Ehud Olmert to step down over his handling of the war with Lebanon. Judging by past rallies in the square, the crowd appeared to number slightly more than 100,000 people, about half the turnout forecast by some organizers. Effie Eitam, a lawmaker from the opposition National Union party who helped plan the event, said more than 150,000 demonstrators were on hand.
Those who gathered in the warm Mediterranean evening, many emblazoned with stickers saying "Olmert Go Home" and "Elections Now," appeared to be an accurate reflection of the religious and secular, the hawks and doves, the old and young who make up the country's diverse electorate.

Details click subject

AIG & MU

Agence France-Presse - 9/17/2008 12:07 PM GMT
Finance storm sweeps on after AIG's $85bln rescue
The global finance storm swept up a new victim Wednesday as HBOS, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, was reportedly forced into takeover talks after the US government's 85-billion-dollar rescue of AIG.
Stock markets around the world focused on who might follow Lehman Brothers, American International Group (AIG) and Merrill Lynch onto the finance scrap heap leading investors on a hair-raising roller-coaster ride.
The US Federal Reserve 's massive loan to AIG brought some relief to Asian and European markets but storm clouds quickly gathered over HBOS which is in talks to be taken over by British bank TSB Lloyds, the BBC reported.

Read details, click subject.

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Man Utd unlikely to lose their shirts as sponsor struggles
Manchester United are set to emerge unscathed even if shirt sponsors AIG (American International Group) follows US bank Lehman Brothers in going bust.
MANCHESTER, England (AFP) -
Manchester United are set to emerge unscathed even if shirt sponsors AIG (American International Group) follows US bank Lehman Brothers in going bust.
United have two years left on a club record four-year deal with the insurance giants worth 56.5 million pounds (100.57 million dollars).

Read details.

Japan PM resigned

Agence France-Presse - 9/1/2008 5:43 PM GMT
Japan PM Fukuda resigns in surprise move
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced his sudden resignation Monday, saying the country needed a fresh start after a troubled year in office marred by bitter fighting with the opposition.
The surprise announcement came after the 72-year-old political moderate failed to turn around dwindling public support for his government despite reshuffling his cabinet and unveiling a major economic stimulus package.
Fukuda , under fire over a deeply unpopular medical care plan for the elderly, admitted he felt "swamped" dealing with the problems of the world's second largest economy.
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Fukuda, who in July presided over the annual summit of the Group of Eight major industrial powers, is known for his moderate policies including his efforts to repair historically uneasy relations with China.
But he has openly admitted that he lacks charisma, and polls show voters faulting him for not showing stronger initiative.
Fukuda said he made the decision in light of the tense situation in parliament. The opposition Democratic Party won control of one house last year and has aggressively fought Fukuda's agenda.
"The Democratic Party has tried to stall every bill so it has taken a long time to implement any policies. For the sake of the Japanese people, this should not be repeated," Fukuda said.
Fukuda's LDP has been in power for all but 10 months since its creation in 1955. It enjoys a powerful majority in a legacy of a 2005 landslide victory under reformist leader Junichiro Koizumi.
The opposition lashed out at Fukuda, saying that he should call a general election.
"All we want is the calling of early elections," said Yukio Hatoyama, secretary general of the main opposition Democratic Party.
"I am deeply resentful towards Fukuda for not caring about people," Hatoyama told reporters. "His sudden abandonment showed that the LDP does not have the ability to hold the reins of government."
Fukuda was bracing for another showdown with the opposition in parliament. The next session is set to open on September 12, although media reports said it would likely be delayed.
The opposition last year forced a brief halt to Japan's mission in the Indian Ocean supporting the US-led "war on terror" in Afghanistan.
Another fight is expected during this session over whether to extend the mission for another year.
Fukuda took office nearly a year ago in hopes of reviving the LDP, but he faced an uproar for introducing a hugely unpopular medical coverage plan that raises costs for many elderly people.
On Friday, he unveiled a 11.7-trillion-yen (107-billion-dollar) stimulus package, although some experts doubted it would give a long-term boost to the economy.
A poll out earlier Monday said that his government's approval rating had slumped nine points in the past month to 29 percent, erasing most of the bounce he received from reshuffling his cabinet a month ago.
The poll tipped Aso as the most popular candidate to replace Fukuda.
But analysts said that any prime minister would face a challenge in a divided parliament, an anomaly in Japanese politics.
"I doubt things would get any easier if someone else from the LDP succeeds him as prime minister," said Sadafumi Kawato, professor of politics at Tohoku University.
"In the broader sense, this is a sign of the LDP's declining power," he said.

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Japanese inculcates straight forward culture and yet, still humble. They can change their PM many times in a year, yes, for the sake of the nation. The country comes first.

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Once a pilot told me -- if the pilot is not fit to fly aeroplane, co-pilot must take over or change/get new pilot (of course la!!! you think flight passengers want the unfit pilot to fly them?)

World War II & Japan

Japan PM voices remorse for WWII on surrender date
Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda refused to join his predecessors in visiting a controversial war shrine here Friday as he expressed his country's remorse for the pain it inflicted in World War II.
Known for his conciliatory views on Japan's wartime history, Fukuda marked the anniversary of its defeat in 1945 with a moment of silence in a nationally broadcast annual memorial service.
"The nation inflicted significant damage and pain on many countries, especially on people in Asian countries," Fukuda said at a ceremony attended by Emperor Akihito, whose father Hirohito surrendered exactly 63 years earlier.
"Here I express, on behalf of the nation, deep remorse and humble condolences for all of the people who fell victim."

Fukuda stayed away from the Yasukuni shrine, which honours 2.5 million Japanese war dead including 14 top war criminals from World War II. Instead, he offered flowers at a nearby secular cemetery to war dead.

Details >>> click here.

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Free Asia…!!! – that’s the slogan hailed during WWII – magic word that I could recall from history book.

I wish I could tell our late grandfathers, grandmothers, our pak sedara, all arwah-arwah askar (soldiers), pejuang bangsa (great warriors).

The message shall be conveyed like this --- atuk, nenek dan semua perwira/pejuang, Jepun menyesal serta mintak ampun dan maaf kerana menyusahkan Negara dan hidup kalian semua.

(..and forgive me, I can’t even think or try to imagine what kind of response from all of them. What kind of pain, suffer, hardship and agony – only they know well.)

May Allah bless all.

is there any (alternative) place beside this world..!

the world is becoming a happier place (?) (study says).

btw, do we have other alternatives? what is in your list?

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space station.
moon.
nearby planet(s).

.

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(taj, they did compare with previous century la...).

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ha ha ha are you sure? than better be careful, the (illegal) aliens are migrating here, on earth...! -- no matter what happens we have to stay here on earth. what we have to do is to survive.

green alien is telling us something..!!

Agence France-Presse - 7/9/2008 10:35 PM GMT
The world is becoming a happier place: study
The world is becoming a happier place, a study published in this month's Perspectives of Psychological Science shows.
Data from national surveys conducted between 1981 and 2006, which were collated by researchers at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, showed that happiness was on the rise in 40 out of 52 countries.
And in a separate happiness ranking, which looked at 97 countries representing 90 percent of the world's population, only 20 countries were listed as unhappy.

more details read here.

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