theSun | FRIDAY DECEMBER 19 2008 9

news without borders

Four robbers shot dead

PERMATANG PAUH:
Police shot dead four men,
believed to be members of a
housebreaking and robbery
gang active in the state, in
a shootout at Guar Perahu
here at about 5am yesterday.
State deputy police chief
Datuk Salleh Mat Rasid
said two of the men were
foreigners, believed to
be Indonesians, and two
others locals. All were aged
between 30 and 40.
He said police, upon
receiving a tip off on a
gang seen loitering in Guar
Perahu, sent an officer and Police examine the vehicle the men
seven men to investigate. were in during the shootout.
The team saw a dark blue
Pajero with its occupants
behaving in a suspicious several sharp weapons were investigating whether
manner at the junction to including housebreaking it was a stolen vehicle, Salleh
Taman Guar Perahu and tools were found in the said.
tailed the vehicle. vehicle. He said that with the gang
“Upon realising the police Initial investigation crippled, police believed
were behind them, they showed that the two locals several housebreakings and
accelerated and one of them had criminal records, with robberies in the state had
opened fire,” Salleh said, one on the wanted list. The been solved. The gang’s
adding that the four men two foreigners had no iden- modus operandi had been to
were killed in the ensuing tification papers on them. break into houses, tie up the
shootout. The Pajero carried false occupants and escape with
He said a pistol and registration plates and police valuables. – Bernama

Hillslope development requires

standard regulations
KUALA LUMPUR: A harmonised Malaysia needs to develop her own
regulatory framework is required to comprehensive system, incorporating elements
facilitate safe hillslope development in such as the reviewing of regulatory frameworks,
the country, say engineers. upgrading substandard and ageing hill slopes,
The Institute of Engineers Malaysia and maintenance of slopes. Public awareness of
(IEM) said in a statement released hillslope failures should also be improved.
yesterday that the four key parties
concerned with ensuring safe hillslope
development are the local authorities,
planners, engineers and developers.
It pointed out that negligence on the
part of any of these parties could have
disastrous consequences such as the
Bukit Antarabangsa landslide on Dec 6.
However, it said, there should be
no speculation until a thorough inves-
tigation into the cause of the landslide
was conducted by technical experts.
It is the duty of the local authorities
to enforce regulations relating to the
planning, design, construction and
maintenance of residential and com-
mercial buildings on hill slopes, in line
with the required standard, the IEM said.
Local authorities, however, are
usually not well staffed with engineers
and rely on other agencies such as the
Public Works Department, Drainage and
Irrigation Department and Malaysian
Public Works Institute (Ikram) for
advice, it said.
In addition, guidelines vary across the
country, which results in inconsistency.
Hence, the need for a uniform set of
regulations which would apply to dev-
elopment in the country as a whole.
The IEM said due diligence reports are
important owing to the complex nature of
hillslope development, adding that steep
hill slopes can be built to a standard level
deemed to be safe, provided that only
competent engineers are engaged.
It said one way to improve the level of
public safety in hillslope projects would
be to study development systems used
by other countries, citing Hongkong as
a country where a relatively successful
system has been implemented.

Not Verticas Residensi

THE Page 6 report “Worried about Bukit Cey-
lon project” on Tuesday wrongly identified
the relevant project as Verticas Residensi.
It was in fact a neighbouring development
of a 34-storey commercial and residential
project. The error is regretted.