Thursday January 3, 2013

Man pays RM800,000 for gold shirt

● 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 this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.

A TEAM of goldsmiths spent 15 days working on a shirt for an Indian businessman who wanted to wear it to greet the New Year.

They laboured 18 hours a day to complete the RM800,000 shirt for the man in Pune, Mumbai.

Makkal Osai reported that the businessman wanted the shirt, which came with six Swarovski crystal buttons and a gold belt, as “an investment”.

“The gold shirt had been one of my dreams,” he told reporters.

He also said that he owned about 10kg of gold, including 10 gold chains, six bracelets, 25 rings and a wristwatch.

“People buy cars or go for holidays abroad. For me, gold is the ultimate passion,” he said, adding that he was not worried about security issues as he had bodyguards.

> The 80-year-old Sivan Temple in Jasin, Malacca, has been closed indefinitely following a deadlock between the temple's present and previous management committees, Malaysia Nanban reported.

It said both committees put separate locks at the temple on Tuesday.

The temple and the Sivashree Maha Mariamman Temple had been under the leadership of one chairman for the past 30 years.

Subsequently, questions arose as to why the two temples were under one chairmanship.