6 theSun | MONDAY DECEMBER 22 2008

news without borders

HIV test not meant to stop

couples marrying: Liow
JOHOR BARU: The
compulsory HIV screening for
potential Muslim brides and
bridegrooms, effective next
year, is not intended to stop
them from marrying but to
ascertain their health standard,
Health Minister Datuk Liow
Tiong Lai said yesterday.
He said that with 80,938 HIV
cases recorded until last year,
such a move was necessary to
prevent its spread.
“HIV screening is not new
in the country, where until
now, between 0.05 and 0.1
per cent of those who did the
screening before their marriage
were tested positive for HIV,”
he told reporters after opening
a programme on healthy
lifestyle and an HIV awareness
campaign held in conjunction
with World AIDS Day here.
The programme is
organised by the Sultanah
Aminah Hospital Visitors’
Board with the cooperation
of the Johor AIDS Action and
Research Association.
Although the HIV screening
is compulsory for Muslims,
Liow said, non-Muslim couples
intending to marry were
encouraged to also do the test.
He believed that with more
people willing to go for HIV
screening, Malaysia would be
able to achieve its objective to
reduce HIV cases to only 11
for every 100,000 residents by
2015, from 4,549 cases or 16.6
cases for 100,000 residents last
year. – Bernama
Malaysians still charitable
despite slowdown: Survey
by Faith Labunda
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
KUALA LUMPUR: A
MasterCard survey shows that
consumers are still willing to
make donations to charity in
the coming year despite the
economic meltdown.
Chinese In Malaysia, more than
private 50% of the respondents plan
secondary to donate to charitable causes
in the next 12 months – 4.9%
schools are prepared to give more than
full 5% of their annual income,
for 2009 and 48.1% not more than 5% of
their annual income.
Malaysian females prove to
be more generous than men at
both ends of the age spectrum
with females beating the males
56.4% to 39.5% in the under-30,
and 50% to 28.6% in the above-
56 age groups.
However, Malaysian men
in their mid-life seem more
charitable with 47.8% of men
aged 31 to 45 and 58.1% aged
46 to 55 willing to donate
compared with the 39.4%
of women aged 31 to 45
and 41.4% of women aged
46 to 55.
The survey also shows that
single females in Malaysia
are more willing to donate
compared with single males,
with statistics at 55.4% females
against 45.4% males looking to
make a donation.
The MasterCard survey
was run between Sept 1 and
29, involving a total of 6,019
consumers in 14 markets
through personal,
telephone and
computer- for more info log on:
aided www.masterintelligence.com.
telephone
interviews.
“It is heartening to see that
consumers across the region
are still looking to spread
some cheer despite the trying
economic environment,”
said MasterCard Worldwide
Asia/Pacific communications
vice-president Georgette Tan.
“While giving patterns
differ across the various
demographics, it is
encouraging to see that more
than 50% of consumers across
all groups were planning to
make charitable donations.”
On a regional level, more
than half (52.7%) of the
consumers plan to make
charitable donations within
the next 12 months, with those
in Indonesia (88.3%), New
Zealand (77%) and Australia
(66%) placed among
the more
generous
countries.
Divorced
and widowed
consumers (with
65.9% planning to donate)
prove more generous
compared with those who
are single (50/8%) or married
(53.3%).

Firefly bids farewell to Fokker planes

PETALING JAYA: Firefly, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines (MAS),
has completed its fleet change with
five new ATR 72-500 aircraft replacing
the Fokker-50 used previously by the
carrier.
Firefly managing director Eddy Leong
said the new aircraft would replace
three Fokker-50 turbo-propeller aircraft,
leased from MAS since the launch of
Firefly in April last year.
“It is indeed an emotional day for
us to bid farewell to our Fokker-50s
as they had served us well during the
initial start-up stage,” he told reporters
at a Farewell to Firefly’s Fokker-50s
ceremony here yesterday.
Leong said two of the Fokker-50s
had been returned to MAS and MAS-
Wings, another subsidiary of MAS, and
the third one would be returned to MAS
on Dec 31.
“The Fokker-50 is about 19 to 20
years old ... the original manufacturer
of Fokker no longer produces this type
of aircraft. So, in terms of spare parts, it
is very costly and difficult. But in terms
of aircraft, it is still reliable and safe,”
he said.
“In fact, when MAS put the aircraft
for sale when we handed them over,
they were snapped up by a company in
Europe because the aircraft were still
used in some parts of Europe and they
were in good condition.”
Leong said FireFly, which received its
first ATR72-500 last August, will be get-
ting another five ATR72-500 by August
next year.
“Compared to the Fokker-50, the
72-seat ATR would give us 44% addi-
tional revenue capacity while reducing
operating cost by as much as 20%,
especially on fuel and maintenance,”
he said. – Bernama