News nibbles

Bus owner fined and jailed for offering bribe

 

KUANTAN: A bus owner was fined RM11,000 and sentenced to a day in jail by a Sessions Court here for offering a RM500 bribe to a Road Transport Department officer.

Muthusamy Ramasamy, 66, pleaded guilty when the charge was read out to him before Sessions Court judge Dazuki Ali here yesterday.

Muthusamy had offered the bribe on Feb 18 to the officer in order to release his bus after it was seized for offences under the Road Transport Act.

In pleading for leniency, Muthusamy said that he has no job, no fixed income and that he relies on his son to support his wife and three other children. He paid the fine.

Mentally-ill man remanded in ambulance case

KUCHING: A man believed to be mentally-ill has been remanded for four days to facilitate investigation after he took an ambulance at the Sarawak General Hospital here a short ride.

The remand order until Feb 24 was issued by Magistrate Sandy Yvette Freddy.

In the incident yesterday, the man suddenly took control of the ambulance belonging to the KPJ Specialist Medical Centre, which stopped outside the SGH emergency zone. The paramedics were wheeling a patient out while leaving the ambulance’s engine running. – Bernama

YaPEIM launches mobile counter service

KUCHING: The Malaysian Islamic Economic Development Foundation (YaPEIM) launched its mobile counter service to facilitate transactions, especially in areas that lacked banking facilities.

Its director-general Datuk Abibullah Samsudin said currently YaPIEM had nine mobile service counters nationwide.

Abidullah said among the services offered were the cleaning of gold jewellery or ornaments, gold purity testing, sale and purchase, mortgage transactions, YaPIEM savings and fund, as well as special savings accounts. – Bernama

Fatal accident claims fifth victim

IPOH: The fatal weekend accident in Gerik that saw four people killed in a three-car crash has claimed another victim.

Gerik OCPD Superintendent Ismail Che Isa said Azizan Desa, 60, one of the drivers who was involved in the accident on Sunday died at the Taiping Hospital at about 6.45pm on Tuesday.

It was reported that the 1pm accident, which involved an Audi, a Perodua Kenari and Nissan Frontier, occurred along the Gerik-Jeli Highway.

Those in the Kenari and Frontier were relatives who were travelling to Jeli from Gerik while the Audi was heading in the opposite direction.

Four people died on the spot while six others were injured.

Man ordered to stay off FB until case is over