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Local

 Although Thaipusam was on Thursday, over 100,000 devotees made use of the weekends to visit the Sri Subramaniam temple complex ahead of Thaipusam at Batu Caves. Many went to fulfill their vows early to avoid the crush on the day itself.

However, due to the lack of facilities for the elderly and the disabled, many were not able to fulfill their vows as they are unable to climb the 272 steps at Batu Caves. They will be able to do so soon as a cable car project to ferry devotees and tourists up to the temple was now underway. It is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

The silver chariot started its 12-hour journey to Batu Caves bearing the Lord Subramaniam from the Sri Mariamman temple on Tuesday night.  The silver chariot made its way from Jalan Tun H.S. Lee and other roads before reaching Batu Caves at 2.30pm on Wednesday. The silver chariot made its return to the Sri Maha Mariamman temple at 5pm today.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein gave a lend in hand handing out free food  and drinks around the area on Wednesday night. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak paid a visit to Batu Caves on Thursday. He gave a speech on the diversity of our country and later on witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Damodar Ropeways and Construction Company Pty Ltd from Calcutta and India, and the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple management to build the RM10mil cable car service at Batu Caves.

While DAP vice-chairman M.Kulasegaran urged the government to declare Thaipusam a public holiday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Barisan would make Thaipusam an official public holiday in Kedah if it wrested the state back from pakatan as the Pakatan government has not fulfilled its promise to declare Thaipusam a state holiday.

International

 

Australia’s once-in-a-century flood has yet to cease and the worst is yet to come. The drenching rain that started before Christmas has flooded two-third equaling to an area the size of France and Germany combined in north eastern Queensland state has now shifted to the far south of Australia.

The flood waters had recently hit another Aussie town, Kerang, in the southeast state of Victoria as Horsham, another town in Victoria has been split into two by the flood water overflowing from the Wimmera River just before. Around seventy-two towns in Victoria have already been affected by the rising waters, 1,770 properties have been flooded and more than 3,500 people have evacuated their homes.

Flooding also swept through the island states of Tasmania, washing away bridges and forcing and forcing hundreds of evacuations.

Recent victims are of the eight-year-old boy in the southern Australian town of Horsham and, a woman and his 13-year-old son in northeastern Queensland. The death toll now had climb to more than 30 and hundreds still missing. Queensland Premier said that this could be the nation’s most expensive natural disaster ever and exceeds that of the Hurricane Katrina that struck New Orleans, United States, several years ago.

Source: The Star, The Star Online, BBC News, The Malaysian Insider.