Jimin Kang won the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia for her second LPGA Tour title, beating Juli Inkster by a stroke Sunday when the 50-year-old Hall of Famer bogeyed the final hole.

Kang, the 30-year-old South Korean player who went to high school in Edmonds, Wash., and starred at Arizona State, made a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th for a 6-under 65 and a 9-under total at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.

“Speechless,” Kang said. “That’s not that easy to do for me. I played solid. I hit a lot of putts. As you guys can tell, my score was good enough to win a tournament, and you know, it’s been a while. So I’m trying to soak this in.

“Oh, my God, I can’t believe I won!”

Inkster finished with her second straight 67. She birdied Nos. 15-17 to take the lead, but couldn’t hold on in her bid to break the LPGA Tour age record of 46 years, 8 months set by Beth Daniel in the 2003 Canadian Women’s Open.

Playing in the group behind Kang, Inkster pushed her second shot into the right greenside bunker at 18, then nearly holed out from the sand before two-putting for bogey.

“When I miss it, I miss it right,” Inkster said about her approach shot. “It was a three-quarter shot and I left it out there. I played well all day.

“I really enjoy what I do. It’s nice to be able to compete.”

Kang, also the 2005 LPGA Corning Classic winner, birdied three of the last four holes and earned $270,000 in the inaugural event.

Kang won Corning in dramatic style. She made a hole-in-one on the 15th hole Sunday and edged Annika Sorenstam for the win also.

After a so-so 2006, Kang was very consistent golfer(Her standings on the money list falling between 42nd and 56th each year) from 2007 to her win today. Still her win was a surprise to me today. Kang had rarely contended in those years and I long since pegged her as one of those Korean players(Shi Hyun Ahn, Birdie Kim, Joo Mi Kim, Meena Lee) who win once or twice then fade slowly or quickly from view.

Juli Inkster continues to show she has has game at age 50. She had two top 10′s coming into Malaysia and was in the top 45 money winners. She improved that today and her chances of qualifying for next year’s Solheim Cup team.

Malaysian authorities are grappling with a growing problem of abandoned babies.

Sixty-five infants have been found so far this year, and many were dead by the time they were discovered.

The government fears that number will surpass previous totals – an average of 100 babies are found each year.-BBC

Now read the three parts in bold carefully. A growing problem, 65 infants and an average of 100 babies a year.

2010 is almost eight months old 8 divided into the total amount of babies abandoned- 8.125 a month

8.125 times 12 months equals 97 babies for a year.

The article claims an average of 100 abandoned babies are found each year. Average is the key word, not record high. So it seems to me based on what Jennifer Pak wrote, the number of abandoned babies is on about a normal level. 97 is less than 100, but its within the margin of error. The amount of abandoned babies is not increasing at all.

Does anyone at BBC understand basic statistics or do they prefer writing scary misleading articles and headlines?

They “hired” women and made them sleep with men. Nine months later, they would “harvest” the babies born and sell them to childless couples.

And if this was not heinous enough, they would then tell the new mothers that their babies were not “beautiful enough” and cut down the amount of money originally promised to them.

Behind this “baby factory” is a 50-year-old woman from Banting, known as “Auntie”.

She roped in her husband, cousins and other relatives, making the babies-for-sale syndicate a family business that had been operating for more than five years.

Police managed to bust the syndicate with the arrest of 15 people, nine of whom were members of “Auntie’s” family. Two women who had been “hired” were also arrested.

Police rescued five babies — two girls and three boys aged betwen two weeks and nine months — who were about to be sold off.  [The Star Online]

A thief who stole a flowerpot containing the ashes of an African witch doctor grandmother is risking an involuntary sex change, her grandson warned in a letter published Thursday in a New Zealand newspaper.

The pot was stolen from the home at Gulf Harbour, near Auckland, of At du Plooy, who wrote to the Rodney Times saying he was a medium and keeps in touch with spirit of his grandmother who died 16 years ago in Africa at age 93.

She had put a curse on an area one kilometre around the pot with sex-change icons that can gradually change men into women and vice versa, unless the pot is returned, he wrote.-Malaysia Sun

The thief may just let the gender change follow its course. After the self discovery process is over, he or she may think of the money they will get from selling their story.

Liew Siaw Hsia, 31, gave birth on budget carrier AirAsia’s flight from Penang to Kuching on Wednesday.

Nazatul Mokhtar, a spokesman for the airline, said on Friday that the flight had been diverted to nearby Kuala Lumpur for an emergency landing when Mrs Liew started labor pains. He said Mrs Liew was 27 weeks pregnant, 11 weeks short of the full term.

A doctor on the flight helped the woman deliver her son while the plane was still 2,000 feet in the air in its final approach to land.

Mother and son were rushed to a nearby hospital after the plane landed, an airline statement said. Their condition late on Friday was unknown, though Mr Nazatul had said earlier that they were both in good shape.- Daily Telegraph

An Associated Press article tells us more about the mother.

Liew Siaw Hsia had been flying home Wednesday after quitting her job as a waitress when she started having labor pains.

*****

Liew, a 31-year-old divorcee, said she plans to raise the boy on her own in her home state of Sarawak on Borneo island.

Liew is a single mom.  She may not much use for AirAsia’s free plane ticket offer.

She and the airline said she had been 27 weeks pregnant, 11 weeks short of the full term. The airline, AirAsia, said it would give Liew and her child free flights for life.

Liew told The Associated Press that doctors at a hospital outside Kuala Lumpur have told her they do not expect any health complications and she can take her baby home Monday or Tuesday. She said her boy’s current weight was about 7 pounds (3.2 kilograms).

Huh? The Associated Press should fact check this article written by Sean Yoong out of Kuala Lumpar.  Why do I say this? Here are the reasons-

*- A lungs of a  baby at 27 weeks gestation are not mature.  The child would need breathing assistance for over a month till their lungs were more developed.

*- Babies born at 27 weeks spend at least 8 weeks/two months in a NICU aka neonatal intensive care unit.  My son Daniel was born at 28 weeks and five days. I know more than a little bit about this subject.

*-  No baby born at 27 weeks would weigh 7 lbs. A baby at 37 weeks is considered slightly premature but is often able to come home right away or after a slightly longer hospital stay than a baby born at full term.

A 37 week gestation child could well be born at 7 lbs weight.

A hospital doctor declined to comment, saying it was not their policy to speak about patients.

A specialist on babies and children at a Kuala Lumpur private clinic said it was possible for a baby born at 27 weeks to be healthy and as heavy as Liew’s. He asked that he and his clinic not be identified because Malaysian doctors are supposed to get health ministry approval before making statements to the media on public cases.

This ‘specialist’ is either a fake or a crank. No perinatologist would say a baby born at 27 weeks can be that heavy.  Did Sean Yoong talk to the NICU janitor for his article?

The first woman in Muslim-majority Malaysia to face caning for drinking beer was reprieved Monday because of the holy month of Ramadan. Her family said she would rather get the thrashing with a rattan cane now and put the ordeal behind her.

Islamic officials had taken Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, a 32-year-old mother of two, into custody and were driving her to a women’s prison for the caning when they abruptly turned around and sent her back to her family home in northern Malaysia.

“She feels like a football being kicked around,” Kartika’s father, Shukarno Abdul Muttalib, told The Associated Press. “She’s so exhausted and unhappy with the delay. She would prefer to just receive the six strokes and have everything finished.”

Amnesty International, Malaysian lawyers and some politicians have condemned the sentence, while other critics have warned it would tarnish Malaysia’s image as a moderate country. Islamic officials have defended it as necessary to uphold Islamic values — underscoring tensions between religious conservatives and more liberal and secular elements in society.

Beer, wine and liquor is widely available at shops, bars and restaurants in Malaysia, unlike in more austere Islamic nations such as Iran and Pakistan. Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and other minorities in Malaysia are free to consume alcohol but its Shariah law forbids Muslims — who make up 60 percent of the 27 million population — from drinking, although a minority of Muslims still indulge despite the religious stricture.  [Associated Press]

Malaysia is actually a country I have spent some time in and is actually quite an interesting place.  The majority of the nation are ethnic Muslim Malays with the rest of the population being ethnic Chinese, Indians, or aboriginals.  The Muslims do fall under Shariah law and there are even signs posted reminding people of this.  However, it is not widely enforced and where it is enforced is out in rural areas away from the major cities.

The Shariah law is enforced by religious morality police who many people in Malaysia just blow off.  For example a good friend of mine who is a lieutenant colonel in the Malaysian Army, his wife usually doesn’t wear a hair covering.  I asked her if the morality police would ever hassle her and she said only one time did one them bother her and that once he found out her husband was a lieutenant colonel he quickly went away.  So these guys actually have little authority other than in areas that are religiously conservative.  Personally, I would be surprised if this woman gets caned.

Despite the ridiculousness of being caned for drinking a beer, here is a thought experiment for everyone, who thinks caning would be a good thing to add to the enforcement of minor laws?  I think back to when the American teenager was caned for theft and vandalism in Singapore and I didn’t have a problem with it.  Getting caned seems to be more of a deterrent for minor crimes than putting someone on probation.  Any thoughts?

A YEAR ONE bully slashed his classmate’s private part with a blade because he was not satisfied with the 50 sen he got from his victim, reported Harian Metro.

Seven-year-old Muhamad Amir Amri suffered serious bleeding from a 3cm-long slash wound on his testicles after he refused to hand over money to the bully at a school in Alor Star on Monday.

He was then punched several times in the face before the bully ran back to their classroom to take Muhamad Amir’s pencil case which he believed contained money.

“I ran back to the classroom as well because he threatened to take my pencil case. In the classroom, he checked my pockets and took the 50 sen,” said Muhamad Amir.

He said that the bully then pulled down his pants, took out his blade and slit his testicles, adding that he did not dare fight back as the bully was bigger than him.

Muhamad Amir’s father Amri Rod @ Jamil, 41, said he arrived at the school at 1.15pm to pick up his son when he saw him crouching under the canteen table in pain.  [The Star Online]

I can’t remember a case of bullying in either Korea or the US as bad as this case.  Hopefully the kid will be alright.

The transaction of North Korea’s suspected shipment of weapons to Myanmar, currently being carried on a freighter tracked by the U.S. Navy, was planned to be paid through a bank in Malaysia and the visit by a U.S. envoy to Malaysia this weekend will focus on ways to cut off the payment transaction, Yonhap reported Saturday citing an unnamed “high-level” source.

“Kim Jong-il will have a hard time collecting his money,” the high-level source said, speaking strictly on condition of anonymity. The source declined to identify the bank due to diplomatic concerns.

Philip Goldberg, the U.S. coordinator for the implementation of a U.N. Security Council resolution that punishes North Korea for its May 25 nuclear test, is scheduled to arrive in Malaysia on Sunday.

The visit comes after the White House said late last month that U.S. President Barack Obama discussed North Korea and financial regulations with Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razakon by phone.  [Korea Times]

Once again if this is true, this just goes to show that financial sanctions if vigorously pursued can work.  It appears that the Obama administration is serious about implementing them which is good to see.  Now lets hope that they don’t lose their nerve like the Bush administration did when Pyongyang starts getting more belligerent and then signs on to agreements they have no intention of keeping.

A report on the analysis of the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English will be out by early July.

Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said that and the ministry paper on the issue had been completed and would be handed over to the Cabinet soon.

“We will make a full announcement by early July. Whatever the decision, it will be for the people’s benefit and goes in line with the Prime Minister’s ‘people first’ vision,” he said when replying to Kepong MP Tan Seng Giaw during Question Time at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

Muhyiddin, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, said a study conducted by the ministry and researchers from local universities revealed that overall, teachers and students achieved only a moderate level of knowledge in English.  [The Star Online]

Malaysia has been teaching both Science and Math in English since 2003 and they have so far found a gap in the ability for rural people to learn English compared to their urban peers who grasp the language more easily.  I have to wonder if that is due to the quality of the teachers that are hired to work in the rural areas?  Having spent time in Malaysia and having worked with Malaysians overall I find them to speak English pretty well and in general better than Koreans.  Remember Malaysians have a British colonial background, which may help them learn English, but I think overall their English language teaching policies have been effective and something Koreans may find useful to learn from.

Calling your wife ugly to humiliate her may soon be considered an offence under proposed amendments to the Domestic Violence Act 1994.

The amendments will include a clause on emotional violence against women who are currently only protected against physical abuse.

Women’s Development Depart- ment director-general Datuk Dr Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur said the aim of proposing the amendment was to safeguard women both physically and emotionally.

She said emotional violence was a form of abuse that would scar women deeply and lower their self-esteem, dignity and self-confidence.

“It could be a case when a husband tells his wife she is ugly or humiliates her until she feels emotionally pressured,” she told reporters at the end of a seminar on how to curb violence against women at Wisma Wanita here yesterday.

She added that they were in the process of bringing the proposed amendments to Parliament.  [The Star Online]

It would be interesting to see if this law would apply to foreigners or not?