Friday, January 29th, 2010 09:42:00

MORE CONVENIENT: Cheaper to shop at hypermarkets too - Filepic
THE number of supermarkets and hypermarkets in Malaysia has seen tremendous growth since the 1980s.

The escalating costs of living and the need to stretch the ringgit have increased the opportunity and demand for lower-priced consumer goods retailed at hypermarkets.

Malaysians who live in urban areas have become accustomed to shopping for groceries at hypermarkets and supermarkets.

By Janet Morrissey Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010

Coming off a better-than-expected holiday shopping season, retail experts are growing a bit more optimistic about the outlook for 2010, while consumers are expected to be, um, cheap. "We see a highly frugal consumer being thoughtful and cautious in the way they spend and the way they incur debt" for at least the first half of 2010, says Richard Jaffe, a managing director at Stifel Nicolaus & Co.

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WASHINGTON, Jan 25 — Young people in the United States are spending more time than ever with nearly every form of media — except print.

A report released last week by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that young people spend more hours on the computer, in front of the television, playing video games, texting and listening to music than an average adult spends full-time at work.

By Daniel Martin and Jenny Hope
Last updated at 4:47 PM on 22nd January 2010

Tens of thousands of patients have been ordered to stop taking a popular fat-busting drug suspected of raising the risk of heart attacks and stroke.
The European Medicines Agency last night suspended the licence of the drug Reductil, which was taken by 86,000 Britons last year.
The safety watchdog fears it could threaten the health of the overweight and obese - although it says any side-effects should not be fatal.
However, some 17 deaths have been linked to the drug in Britain since 2001 - six of which were caused by heart attacks and strokes.

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By PAM BELLUCK
Published: January 20, 2010

In a report that may bolster public policy efforts to get Americans to reduce the amount of salt in their diets, scientists writing in The New England Journal of Medicine conclude that lowering the amount of salt people eat by even a small amount could reduce cases of heart disease, stroke and heart attacks as much as reductions in smoking, obesity and cholesterol levels.