Happy Valentine’s Day!

Read here and here (warn u, 18SX) for gift recommendations.

US President George W Bush is asking Congress for $400m (£215m) to reward a number of countries that sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. Quote:

“Poland has been a fantastic ally because the president and the people of Poland love freedom.”

“I know the people of your country must have been thrilled when the millions of people went to the polls in Iraq.”

Democratic Sen Joseph Biden of Delaware, the ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, condemned the administration’s inability to attract more nations to join the coalition. Quote:

“It’s kind of a shame.”

Rewarding nations for help invading countries sovereignty, what say him?

Please, can someone in the know enlight me?

CNN Money reported that Ex-Hewlett Packard (HP) CEO Carly Fiorina may get another $21.4 million, in addition to the $21.1 million departure fees.

She will receive $14 million in severance pay and a $7.4 million bonus for 2004.

Short say, she got away with super whopping $42.5 million - a very dear price paid, even her failure to accelerate the company strategy.

Oppss, she can keep her computer too, with 3 months of technical support.

Being sacked is not a bad thing after all!

CNN reported the first image of seabed scar battered by the quake that triggered Asia’s tsunami quake.

The image of the seabed is produced by a British naval ship collecting data off the coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island and can be used to help government develop a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean region.

It shows scars of more than 10 kilometers wide, resulting from the 9.0-magnitude quake on December 26.

HMS Scott’s commanding officer, Steve Malcolm, said Thursday that the tectonic plates clashed “like the rumpling up of a carpet.”

Want to find out real-more about North Korea’s nukes?

Rebecca MacKinnon invites you to head on over to North Korea Zone. I was thrilled by articles there.

Let’s make a move, NOW!

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Chief Executive Carly Fiorina being outsted by company’s board of directors for not producing the shareholder returns she had promised after controversial deal to buy Compaq in the spring of 2002.

However, she got away with a whopping departure fees of $21.1 million. Quote Dan Gillmor:

“Succeed and you get millions. Fail and you get millions.”

Being rewarded for not performing well, not bad though!

Question: Who’s next? What’s next?

More than 50 soccer players, including some of the football stars worldwide, had been invited by FIFA to take part in the “Football for Hope” match at Barcelona’s Nou Camp Stadium on 15th February.

FIFA’s player of the year, Ronaldinho while Europe’s player of the year, Andriy Shevchenko - will captain the two sides.

All of the proceeds will be donated to the FIFA/Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Tsunami Solidarity Fund. UEFA has also pledged donations to this fund.

Read more of the team line-up at here and here.

The world had been shocked by the confession of North Korea through a stetement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that it has nuclear weapons and will “bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal”.

North Korea also decided to suspend participation in six-way talks on dismantling its nuclear programmes for an indefinite period.

Meanwhile, U.S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, had been seens in seeing urging North Korea to reconsider it s decision to withdraw from nuclear disarmament talks or risk further isolation.

World leaders also expressed concern and regrets towards North Korea decision to quit nuke talks.

FOOTNOTE: North Korea, leads by Kim Jong-Il - being thrusted into the lime light after the death of his father Kim Il-Sung, being branded as “axis of evil” in his 2002 State of the Union Address to describe “regimes that sponsor terror”.

However, United States and North Korea signed an “Agreed Framework” in 1994, bringing North Korea into full compliance and its non-proliferation obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

TV Smith wishes every Malaysian Happy Rooster Year by offering this self-made, self-expression E-Card.

I was wondering, what if I was having my chicken meal when I read that E-Card? I must have puked and start to curse non-stop. :-))

It’s Rooster Year, but no special priviledge to them. Too bad …

After having steamboat lunch with family and relatives, I went to bai-nian (house visit). While I was about to leave one of the house, received a call from Jeff to make an impromptu visit to Kota Kuala Muda, barely 2 months after the shocking tsunami attack.

Kota Kuala Muda is about 10km away from its nearest pekan, Tikam Batu. Along the way, Sungai Muda is on the left while paddy fields are on the right - a big portion of it. We arrived at the town after 15 mins and drived around. Nothing much significant, only to catch a glimpse of mixed-old shophouses. We then proceed to Kampung Sungai Muda, the worst hit area. Half-way,we passed through the temporary homes. The place is quite crowded, humans and cars everywhere. We didn’t stop there, since our intention is to visit the damaged area.

Once we reached the junction of Kampung Sungai Muda, saw a big appreciation banner by the locals. An immediate left-turn was such a sudden evolution. I was saddened by the scenery. Houses were dilapidated (some of the houses may be purposely torned down by the local council to avoid residents’ rebuild houses to avoid repeat occurence of nightmare), void-of-doors’ standalone toilets - like China’s traditional outside toilet, tonnes of messes everywhere, etc etc. The affected area was far stretched until the nearby swamp area. Some residents were seen busy repairing while some remain unperturbed - maybe they’ve taken it as god’s sake. We followed the dusty-n-dirty tiny lane and stopped intermittently to snap some shots until we came to another end. We hiked over the rock bunker and Penang’s Kuala Muda is just opposite us. Scenery of locals digging for lala catch my attentions as I enjoyed doing that too while I was young.

While driving out from the place, Jeff’s friend was saying that the path is narrow compared to years ago where public buses were seen passing by. It seems like a backward scenario, sad but true enough! We called it a day after hanging there for about 30 minutes. Photos of the temporary homes are being taken on our way back. A car driver coming out from the area saw us and happily showed V-sign while an old folk standing aside was puzzled by motive of taking picture there. What a contradiction!

All the while, mixed feeling prevails. Like Ashwar said, “What if we were them?”. Sad that their home sweet home being destroyed - just like that. Happy that it’s over now, life is back to norm, still afford to dig lala, not bad though!

One thing for sure, the generosity of Malaysian from various levels in driving the donation compaign is really something that is commendable. More applause to this and forgot about unpopular this and that. Hell no, Mr. Politicians!

Will update this link again when I got the photos, ini kasi warm up dulu la.

NOTE: So bad, I didn’t have any digital camera with me, only Jeff did. :-(