- Muslims should appreciate the Aidiladha or Hari Raya Korban by
always adhering and being loyal to the command of Allah.
- Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said Muslims
must always follow and be loyal to all the command of Allah S.W.T as did the
Prophet Ibrahim A.S in the incident on the sacrificing of Prophet Ismail A.S.
- “Our loyalty to the commands of Allah SWT must be
demonstrated by upholding Islamic shari’a as contained in the Al-Qur’an and
Al-Sunnah and making the teachings of Islam which is universal as our way of
life.
- “Hopefully, we will all be able to follow the traits of
surrendering to Allah SWT as shown by Prophet Ibrahim A.S and Prophet Ismail
A.S,” he said in his message here today in conjunction with the Aidiladha
celebration this year.
- He said Muslims must also remember the value of sacrifice
which had been demonstrated by the prophets and messengers in the past
especially Prophet Ibrahim and Prophet Ismail.
- Muhyiddin said the practice of sacrifice represented the
symbol of the spirit of sacrifice which must be inherent in every Muslim who
would receive the blessings of Allah in the present world and hereafter.
- He said the practice was also a symbol of gratification for
all the blessings granted by Allah SWT. “It also reminds us of the sustenance
granted by Him, so that the other less fortunate Muslims can share together the
blessings gained from Him,” he said.
- Muhyiddin and his family, who are now in the holy land of
Makkah to perform the haj, also prayed that Malaysia would always be blessed
with prosperity and peace and protected from natural disasters.
- “I pray that all of you will always be blessed by Allah with
good health and prosperity. Selamat Hari Raya Idul Adha from me and family for
all Muslims in Malaysia,” he added. - Bernama
- The hunt for MH370 flight
is about to resume in a desolate stretch of the Indian Ocean, with searchers
lowering new equipment deep beneath the waves in a bid to finally solve one of
the world’s most perplexing aviation mysteries.
- The GO Phoenix, the first of
three ships that will spend up to a year hunting for the wreckage far off
Australia’s west coast, is expected to arrive in the search zone today, though
weather could delay its progress.
- Crews will use sonar, video cameras
and jet fuel sensors to scour the water for any trace of the Boeing 777, which
disappeared March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239
people on board.
- The search has been on hold for
months so crews could map the seabed in the search zone, about 1,800 km west of
Australia.
- The 60,000-square km search area
lies along what is known as the “seventh arc” — a stretch of ocean where
investigators believe the aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed, based largely
on an analysis of transmissions between the plane and a satellite.
- Given that the hunt has already
been peppered with false alarms — from underwater signals wrongly thought to be
from the plane’s black boxes to possible debris fields that turned out to be
trash — officials are keen to temper expectations.
- “We’re cautiously optimistic;
cautious because of all the technical and other challenges we’ve got, but
optimistic because we’re confident in the analysis,” said Martin Dolan, chief
commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the agency leading the
search. “But it’s just a very big area that we’re looking at.”
- That area was largely unknown to
scientists before the mapping process began in May. Two ships have been
surveying the seabed using on-board multi beam sonar devices, similar to a
fish-finder.
- The equipment sends out a series
of signals that determine the shape and hardness of the terrain below, allowing
officials to create three-dimensional maps of the seabed.
- Those maps are considered crucial
to the search effort because the seafloor is riddled with deep crevasses,
mountains and volcanoes, which could prove disastrous to the pricey, delicate
search equipment that will be towed just 100 meters (330 feet) above the
seabed. Two of the search ships will be using underwater search vessels worth
around USD1.5 million each.
- “You can imagine if you’re towing
a device close to the seafloor, you want to know if you’re about to run into a
mountain,” said Stuart Minchin, chief of the environmental geoscience division
at Geoscience Australia, which has been analysing the mapping data.
- The terrain isn’t the only
challenge.
- The area is prone to brutal
weather, and is so remote that it takes vessels up to six days to get there
from Australia. Water depths are also tricky: They range from 600 meters to 6.5
km. That’s about the deepest the sonar equipment can go, Dolan said. “In all
sorts of ways we’re operating towards the limits of the technology that is
available,” Dolan said.
- With the mapping nearly complete,
the GO Phoenix, provided by Malaysia’s government, will begin hunting in an
area considered the likeliest crash site, based on an analysis of satellite
data gleaned from the plane’s jet engine transmitter and a series of unanswered
phone calls officials on the ground made to the plane.
- The other two vessels, the
Equator and Discovery, provided by Dutch contractor Fugro, are expected to join
the hunt later this month. Malaysia and Australia are each contributing around
USD60 million to fund the search.
- The ships will use tow fish, underwater
vessels equipped with sonar that create images of the ocean floor. The tow
fish, which transmit data in real time, are dragged slowly through the water by
thick cables up to 10 km long.
- If something of interest is
spotted on the sonar, the tow fish will be hauled up and fitted with a video
camera, then lowered back down. The tow fish are also equipped with sensors
that can detect the presence of jet fuel, although that would likely be a
longshot.
- David Gallo, who helped lead the
search for Air France Flight 447 after it crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in
2009, said that even if the fuel tanks had survived the impact, strong currents
in the search area probably would have dispersed any leaking fuel by now.
- Still, he said, it’s worth a try.
In some of the steep rugged areas any kind of additional information would be
useful to help peer into the dark shadows,” Gallo, an oceanographer with the
U.S.-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, said in an
e-mail.
- There will be between 25 and 35
people on each ship, and crews will likely work around the clock. The ships can
stay at the search site for up to 30 days before they must head back to shore
to refuel and re-supply.
- “The most efficient way is to
keep going,” Dolan said. “But you have to be careful with the well-being of
your crews, to be sure you’re not pushing them too hard.”
- The work will be painstaking.
- The ships can move no faster than
11 kph (7 mph) while towing the sonar equipment. If a vessel needs to change
direction, the crew must first pull the towfish up enough that it won’t fall to
the seafloor during the turn — a process that takes hours. “None of this
happens very quickly,” Dolan said.
- Irene Burrows, whose son Rodney
Burrows was on board Flight 370 with his wife, Mary, believes the plane will be
found. -- AP
