Ah Long promoting big loans for World Cup

FOOTBALL fans are not the only ones who will be in a frenzy when World Cup 2014 final kicks off in Brazil next month.

Kosmo! reported on its front page that illegal money lenders or loan sharks have been aggressively promoting loans of up to RM500,000 to gambling addicts.

Gerakan complaints bureau chairman Wilson Lau Hoi Keong claimed that the number of borrowers seeking loans from Ah Long during this period was expected to go up by 50% compared to “normal days”.

Based on their record, Lau claimed that there were eight cases of borrowers who failed to repay loans amounting to RM2mil during the 2010 World Cup tournament.

Anti-Crime, Drug and Social Development Voluntary Organisation president S.R. Jeevan claimed that some loan sharks offered loans of up to RM500,000 with an interest rate of 30% to 45%.

A Kosmo! reporter, who contacted a money lending firm, was told that large loans could be given out only after a car or house was provided by the borrower as collateral.

> Harian Metro reported about the success of eight Malaysian explorers with the KE7B Felda Greenland 2014 Expedition that became the first group from South-East Asia to cross the world’s largest fjord, the Kangerlussuaq Fjord.

KE7B president Muhamad Muqharabbin Mokhtarrudin said the group, headed by Yanizam Supiah, spent 27 days trekking across 540km of ice before arriving at Hill 660 at the fjord on Saturday.

He said the explorers, aged between 25 and 34, began their trek on April 28 from Hans Gletche after undergoing training at Lambafill Blue Mountain and ReyKjavik, Iceland.

“The group will be in Kanger­lussuaq until Friday. They will be flown to Nuuk, Greenland before leaving for Kuala Lumpur via London on Monday,” he said.

They are expected to arrive at KLIA on Tuesday.

Found in translation is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.