Death strikes just as hope was renewed

Compiled by SIM LEOI LEOI, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN

A day after the wife of Tia, the former vocalist of rock group Jinbara, pledged to donate part of her liver to save her cancer-stricken husband, the 53-year-old rocker passed away suddenly, Harian Metro reported.

Suzan Ahmad, 48, had just set up a fund to help raise RM250,000 for the transplant, set to take place in a hospital in New Delhi, India.

Tia, whose real name is Shamsul Bakhtiar Zakaria, died of stage four liver cancer while being treated at Hospital Shah Alam at 9.17pm on Wednesday.

“His condition was still stable at that time although the doctor found some internal bleeding. But while being treated, he passed away. I was by his side,” said Suzan, a former journalist.

Suzan said she had pledged to donate part of her liver as her blood type was compatible with her husband’s.

Tia was buried at the Muslim cemetery in Masjid Kota Raja.

Jinbara, which used to be known as Tropika, debuted in 2000 with its first album Pui-Aiya-Hoi.

> The daily also reported that estate workers in Alor Pongsu, Perak, were shocked to stumble upon a huge python that had just engorged itself on a calf.

The 5m snake, which was found in an oil palm estate in Kampung Selekoh on Wednesday, weighed around 50kg.

A spokesman from the Civil Defence Force said they received a report from the workers at 11.21am and rushed to the scene to find the python in a drain.

Their personnel took about three hours to capture the snake with special equipment, after which the reptile was handed over to the wildlife authorities in Kerian.

There has been a spate of reports of pythons being found in residential areas lately due to floods.

The above articles are 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.