Monday July 12, 2004

Ministry to monitor SMS contests

THE Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry will scrutinise short message service (SMS) contests to check cheating incidences.

Its parliamentary secretary Hoo Seong Chang said this was due to a spate of alleged cheating cases involving such contests.

Hoo advised consumers not to be greedy as they could end up losing more in SMS charges.

“Before entering such contests, contestants should read the rules carefully,” he said.

He was referring to a report where an insurance agent allegedly spent about RM20,000 on SMS contests but received only RM6,000 worth of prizes. Another case involved a college student who spent RM2,000.

The daily also reported that the Health Ministry would work with the Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Ministry to prevent the bird flu virus from entering the country.

Quoting Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek, the daily said the Health Ministry would follow up on reports from the other ministry.

Dr Chua added that although the country had yet to report any case of the bird flu virus, the Government had put in place preventive measures.

On another matter, Dr Chua urged all government hospitals to achieve the ISO 9000 accreditation by the year 2008.

He said that to date, only 19 of the 124 government hospitals had achieved the accreditation.

China Press reported that a woman ended up in hospital with injuries after being slapped by her husband.

She was slapped after she complained that her husband could not satisfy her sexually.

Nanyang Siang Pau reported that the Transport Ministry had allocated RM80mil to expand the Malacca airport.

Its minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy said with the expansion, the airport could accommodate Boeing 737 planes from Indonesia and Thailand, which in turn would be a boost to the state's tourism and aviation sector.

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