Thursday March 1, 2012

Mazhar gets blessings to pursue career choice

MAZHAR Mahathir, the adopted son of Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister, wants to carve his name in the theatre scene although, he said, his father was initially apprehensive over his career choice.

After convincing his adoptive parents of his commitment, both Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali gave their blessings and encouragement.

“He's just like any father in the world who wants only the best for his children.

“After seeing how committed I was, he accepted it and now encourages me to succeed in my dream,” he told mStar, the Malay news portal of The Star on the sidelines of the launch of the Upin & Ipin Musical. The show will be staged from April 14 to May 6 at Istana Budaya in Kuala Lumpur.

Mazhar, 28, added that his mother is his biggest fan, who always motivates him to achieve success as a theatre activist.

> For six months, a senior citizen in Kota Baru kept a runaway maid at his home and made her his sex slave, a court was told.

Yusoff Mat Rani, 61, used two abandoned huts near his house in Kampung Limau Manis to carry out his assaults on the 24-year-old Indonesian woman.

The man's wife did not suspect anything as he told her the maid was with him to gather boxes for recycling, Kosmo! reported.

It is understood that between June and December last year, Yusoff repeatedly raped the maid, sometimes four times a week and, in some instances, twice a night.

The maid escaped from Yusoff and reported her plight to the Immigration Department on Dec 22.

On Tuesday, the victim related her ordeal at the Sessions Court and Yusoff was sentenced to 10 years' jail for confining the woman for six months and assaulting her.

> The images of a sleeping child with his mouth tightly taped and an infant tightly bundled in cloth were allegedly posted on the Net by two caregivers recently sacked from a childcare centre in Masai, Johor.

The two disgruntled ex-workers admitted to the authorities that they did it to humiliate their employer, Sinar Harian reported.

State Welfare Department director Khatijah Abdullah said initial investigations indicated that the two ex-employees were behind the malicious act aimed at tarnishing the centre's image, adding that a police report was lodged over the incident.

Other News & Views is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.

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