Open verdict in death of 44-year-old man, body found decomposing in Toa Payoh flat

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SINGAPORE: A coroner’s court on Tuesday (Aug 8) recorded an open verdict in the death of a 44-year-old man, whose body was found decomposing in a flat in Toa Payoh in October last year.

Mr Raymond Pang Yoke Heng lived alone in the flat at Block 126, Toa Payoh Lorong 1, for several years after his parents and sister died.

The court heard that he was unemployed when he died, although a relative said he was working as a security guard before the COVID-19 pandemic.

A neighbour named only as Madam Tan said she had last seen Mr Pang on Oct 4, 2022.

She walked past Mr Pang’s flat three days later and detected a foul smell. Initially, she thought nothing of it, but checked again the next day.

She then sensed a persistent foul smell and noticed there were many flies.

She called the police saying she had not seen her neighbour in the past few days and had checked with another neighbour, who similarly had not seen Mr Pang.

Two police officers arrived at the flat at about 5pm on Oct 8, 2022. When Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers joined them a while later, they pried open one of the windows and saw Mr Pang lying on a bed in a bedroom.

The SCDF officers cut open a metal chain securing the gate and entered the flat with the police.

Mr Pang was found lying on the bed and was in an “obvious decomposed state”, the coroner said. There were maggots on the body and the skin had visibly darkened.

He was pronounced dead that same day.

Mr Pang’s uncle told the court that his nephew had become depressed after his mother died in 1993. He said he and one of Mr Pang’s aunts would take care of him and visit him.

However, the uncle said he had not visited Mr Pang since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. He recalled that Mr Pang had been working as a security guard and appeared to be happy with his job. 

Investigations revealed that Mr Pang had a history of substance and alcohol abuse, on top of chronic illnesses.

He was first seen at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) in 2005, when relatives took him there. He was admitted for drug-induced psychosis and given anti-psychotic medications.

He was admitted to IMH several times in the following years with grandiose delusions and was diagnosed with psychotic disorder, with his last admission in March 2016.

That same month, he was seen at the National Addictions Management Service for using benzodiazepines, cough mixtures and alcohol. 

Mr Pang also had chronic illnesses such as hypertension.

However, due to the extent of decomposition, it was not possible to tell whether these illnesses had developed into diseases that caused his death, such as coronary artery disease or heart disease.

The toxicology report revealed that Mr Pang had taken a number of medications that had not been prescribed to him, noted State Coroner Adam Nakhoda.

“As such, based on the facts and circumstances of this case, it was not possible to reasonably conclude either that Mr Pang’s death was due to natural or unnatural causes,” he said.

He extended his condolences to Mr Pang’s next-of-kin.

This is the second open verdict for a case with a decomposing body recorded in a matter of weeks. On Jul 28, a coroner gave the same verdict for a 46-year-old man who was found dead by a tenant.

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Pakistan: Imran Khan’s supporters are silenced but determined

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Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party activists and supporters of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan celebrate after Supreme Court declared Khan's arrest "invalid", in Lahore on May 11, 2023.Getty Images
By Azizullah Khan
BBC Urdu, Peshawar

When former prime minister Imran Khan was arrested over the weekend over corruption allegations, there was barely a whimper of protest.

Not a single major demonstration was reported anywhere in the country.

Compare this to a few months ago, when the 70-year-old was arrested and taken from a court complex in Islamabad on 9 May. It sparked protests around the country, which also led to violence in some places as Mr Khan’s supporters clashed with security forces. Some protesters raided military buildings and even ransacked the home of the most senior military commander in Lahore.

But this time around, when Mr Khan was sentenced and then taken to a prison in Attock city, authorities were ready. His destination was kept secret and reports say there were a number of decoy convoys to deceive the media. Police and the military were on high alert across all major cities, and dozens of people were pre-emptively taken into custody.

Pakistan’s governing party and the army have pointed to the lack of protest over Mr Khan’s arrest as a sign that the former PM no longer enjoys the support of the people. But his Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaf (PTI) party and supporters say they have been forced into silence by a swift crackdown. The BBC also understands that media outlets were told not to cover PTI’s activities or even mention Mr Khan’s name on air following the mass protests in May.

Thousands of Mr Khan’s supporters have been arrested since May. The army has said they intend to try them in military courts, which human rights groups have said is against international law. The PTI has also been systematically gutted, with numerous party workers and leaders being arrested, or facing court cases. Mr Khan himself still faces some 200 cases. Several PTI members have since defected or quit politics altogether.

Ali Akbar, a senior political analyst, said this is why Mr Khan’s calls for a protest went unheeded this time – not only did workers and supporters fear arrest, but they were also unable to mobilise support because of the lack of leadership left in PTI.

Fatima, a PTI supporter whose name has been changed on request, said police action against party leaders had frightened her into silence – even online.

“I used to still support the party on Twitter, but one day I received a phone call from an anonymous number warning me against posting such tweets. I got scared and my parents also advised me to delete my Twitter account as they said no-one would be able to help me if I were arrested,” she said.

Another party worker said he did not want to put himself in a difficult situation given the police appeared ready to arrest anyone who came forward to protest.

“After so many of their leaders and workers were arrested, my family members are not even allowing me to meet other lady workers of the party,” says Naheed, a homemaker in the conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan, whose name has been changed on request.

She says she began supporting Imran Khan and the PTI after they were ousted from power in April last year. But now, she adds, she is unable to even leave her house, because of the extent of the police action against party workers.

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Other supporters who spoke to the BBC also said they did not want to protest this time. One man who did not want to be identified said he believed in peaceful demonstration, but was disheartened after the May protests turned violent: “I don’t know who was behind it but I cannot support such violence and destruction.”

But many also said they still support Mr Khan and the PTI, even if they were not doing so publicly. The strength of this “silent support” is still visible. The PTI recently won a by-election in an area where it lost last year – and by a notable margin.

Anti-establishment stances quickly become popular in Pakistan, says Irfan Khan, a political analyst.

“Earlier when the PTI was in power and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) took an anti-establishment stance, the PML won by-elections at many seats even in PTI strongholds,” he said.

Mr Khan himself was seen as an ally of the establishment when he rose to power in 2018, and is widely believed to have been ousted after the relationship soured.

Many PTI supporters, including Fatima, vow that they will still vote for Mr Khan and his party in the next general election, which is expected to be held later this year.

Naheed also says her vote will go to the PTI: “These actions will not make us leave the PTI. Our love for Imran Khan and the party is only getting stronger, and we will continue to support them.”

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China’s long term ‘advantages’ over the US

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What will work better between USA and China, short-term economic cycles or long-term systemic assets or baggage? The picture may look not so clear if seen from Beijing.

USA-China mirrors

Beijing has just launched a whole array of measures aimed at compensating for lackluster growth at the beginning of the year, and its main thrust is about pouring money into the market – but this may exacerbate the situation, as Reuters reports:

Latest official data shows financial institutions issued 5.5 trillion yuan ($766.12 billion) worth of long-term deposits known as certificates of deposit (CD) in the first quarter of this year — the largest such quarterly issuance since the product was introduced in 2015.

Domestic investors have rushed into these CDs over the past year in a desperate search for returns as they withdraw from real estate and the stock market, both traditional investment options now looking treacherous because of regulatory and economic problems.

Companies have joined the scramble this year, adding to the drag on China’s economy. It effectively means businesses and households are hoarding cash rather than investing it, despite lower interest rates. This classic liquidity trap plagued Japan for years beginning in the 1990s.

It means that so far, people and companies don’t want to spend their money; it’s not that they have no money to spend in the market. In that case, Beijing’s cash injections will not work because supply-side answers don’t solve demand-side questions.

It looks like Japan’s 1980s liquidity trap. What can Beijing do to kickstart demand and give confidence to consumers and investors? Why do they lose confidence? This might be the crux of the matter, and it’s not simply financial.

At least three elements contribute to the situation. The real estate market, for over two decades the main driver of growth, collapsed. Now, it languishes, with possibly up to 100 million unsold finished apartments. Real estate accounts for some 60% of the outstanding bank loans.

No other engine can replace real estate at the moment. Infrastructure building was the other significant driver, with long-term and low returns; meanwhile, it blew up the local and national debt.

Moreover, investors and consumers have grown more timid. A decade of anti-corruption campaigns has scared many entrepreneurs who initially made money while cutting many corners. Plus, longstanding anti-Covid measures choked the markets for three years instead of one year for other countries. Now, many still feel the aftershocks. Finally, the tense international situation and the threat of sanctions cast a shadow over foreign trade.

The accumulation of all these problems could crush the Chinese economy and thus spread into society and politics. Chinese leaders know it. They are pragmatists, not ideologues, and before these issues, they radically changed course in the past. Then the question is whether we can expect a dramatic turn in China soon.

Some changes will happen for sure; however, how radical they will be is an open question because the Chinese are still unsure about the example America is giving them.

A picture from two sides

The Chinese see a list of intertwined problems in the US that make China look safer and better in comparison.

Image: Media.am

Here is a brief summary list:

  1. Overuse of legal and illegal opioids and drugs sold quite freely;
  2. Spread of firearms and violence, unsafe urban environments;
  3. Poor basic healthcare;
  4. Poor primary and middle school education;
  5. Youngsters all hooked on super-addictive smartphones and games;
  6. Persistent race issues, perhaps hiding class issues;
  7. Lousy food, an overweight population and dropping classical education;
  8. Broken families;
  9. Infrastructure in shambles.

Plus there is the American ballooning public debt with doubts about its sustainability, while this question sits in the middle of complex global trade situation. Can the USA fix it?

Conversely, Beijing feels that China has been outperforming the US in building long-term social resources. It has:

  1. Few drugs;
  2. No firearms, safe urban environment;
  3. Improving basic healthcare;
  4. Improving basic education;
  5. New rules limiting children under 18 to two hours of smartphone usage per day;
  6. No racial issues;
  7. Greater study of Western classics, art, and music;
  8. Strong family values;
  9. More infrastructure spending domestically and internationally.

The list is simplistic and confusing, as many items would deserve deeper examination. But they are the nuts and bolts of any country, and China here feels, right or wrongly, that it has been outperforming America. Therefore, the present economic difficulties might just be hiccups that need to be fixed but do not require a significant U-turn.

Conversely, do the differing political systems favor China or the US in dealing with their respective problems?

Indeed, in both countries, there are vested interests that oppose systemic political change. But China may feel that its political system is better endowed with the levers to undertake necessary modification. Beijing, this time has started a series of measures to turn the economy around.

Conversely, Beijing feels that although Washington sees its problems, the Americans have been unable to make much progress on any of those issues for years. Many problems have gotten worse. The rich and well-off have good schools, health care, families and safe environments; the poor have none of those.

In this way, Donald Trump’s declared plan to vastly increase presidential powers seems to respond to this crisis of inaction. If Mr. Trump were to become president again, he would be unlikely to improve health care or primary education, which are not on his agenda. But the social divide, the distance between the entitled elites and the growing marginalized ordinary people, creates the resentment that fuels Trump’s outbursts.

In other words, seeing things from Beijing, Trump is the ugly face of an American necessity to change. The US reaction may look as if American elites are trying to eliminate Trump and what he stands for without making any difference. This may prove that there is systemic resistance to necessary US reforms.

This situation in America confirms that despite whatever temporary contingencies and vested interests are involved in keeping the Chinese system, Chinese elites may feel there are no compelling reasons to alter a political structure that may outperform the US in the long run. This opinion is not based on ideology but on pragmatic perceptions of results. The argument may be partial, tainted and inaccurate, but it is not ideological like the old Soviet communists’ arguments.

The times, they are a-changin’

The next few years are crucial to see whether Beijing can get out of its present quagmire and boost domestic confidence, which will drive higher consumption and, thus, better economic performance.

The issue may have more to do with the domestic situation. People may need to feel safe about their assets and protected against future indiscriminate attempts of the authorities to encroach on their properties and to constrain their legal personal freedoms, as happened with the anti-corruption and anti-Covid campaigns.

Here we have a conundrum: These reforms would limit the present boundless power of the party, the one thing that drives the current changes.

Therefore, Beijing might become stuck, trying for lateral moves that won’t correct the big picture, or it might pull a rabbit out of a hat and offer an unexpected solution.

In all of this, it would behoove America to show real progress on all the issues that make the Chinese feel discouraged and hopeless about the US. Real reform in the US could bridge the gap with China and encourage steps in the same direction in Beijing.

On the other hand, if Beijing’s economic performance remains stagnant, it could start some other rethinking in China.

Still, there are historical examples that can be important for both the USA and China.

In the 1960s and 1970s, in the middle of the Cold War, with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, the US undertook a series of welfare and civil rights reforms that improved the fabric of society and mended fissures that the Soviets could have used to break American social order apart.

The action transformed American life and created some conditions that made it possible for the West to beat the USSR. It wasn’t painless. Some of the problems those reforms brought about have not been digested yet, but they saved the day by addressing structural issues.

The USSR, with Gorbachev, started to address some of its social and political problems only after more than 20 years had passed, in the 1980s, and it didn’t go well. With hindsight, many blame the reforms for the fall of the USSR, while the issue was with the systemic faults of the Soviet state.

In other words, the Soviet problems of an almighty bureaucracy stifling all life, and the need for democratization, ought to have been addressed much earlier, when their domestic impact was clear but not so pervasive, at latest by the 1950s, after the war and Stalin’s death. The USSR didn’t address the problems, which festered, and when finally they were attended to it was too late; the system rejected the reforms and imploded.

Is China now starting its necessary reforms while the US is skirting them? From Beijing, it may look like it, creating an odd situation and a false sense of confidence. Still, the process is complicated and American difficulties are neither excuse for nor salvation from Chinese troubles.

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Inflation threat is worse than Larry Summers thinks

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Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers is right about an inflation threat he says is still plaguing the world economy. But his most recent warning is only half the story.

The half on which Summers is focused – the US Federal Reserve – is indeed an important part of the equation, given the vital role that inflation expectations play in investment trends and corporate pricing power where Fed chairman Jerome Powell’s policies are concerned.

“I’m glad that the Fed is not among those who are declaring victory,” Summers told Bloomberg on Friday.

“I don’t think we can yet be confident that we’re not going to see a real acceleration of inflation at some point down the road,” he said shortly after news the US economy added 187,000 jobs in July and unemployment slid to 3.5%.

Last month, average hourly earnings jumped a bigger-than-expected 0.4% from a month earlier. Such wage growth, Summers noted, is “not consistent” with the Fed’s preferred 2% inflation rate. Trouble is, after accounting for productivity dynamics, recent data point to “an underlying inflation rate in the 3.5% range – and it may not be decelerating.”

This gets at the second half of the story: what President Joe Biden is doing – and isn’t doing – to increase productivity and, in turn, US competitiveness.

For all the chatter about a “soft landing” in the US, Summers worries the combination of falling unemployment, increasing job vacancies and rising wages could send bond yields skyrocketing. This would be China’s worst nightmare as policymakers battle sliding growth and deflationary pressures.

“We have not just a tight labor market, but a tightening labor market,” Summers said. An added stress point in Summers’ view: The US population is growing by between 50,000 and 100,000 per month, slower than average job increases over the last several years.

Fed governor Michelle Bowman argues more taps of the monetary brakes might be needed to ensure price stability. “Additional rate increases will likely be needed to get inflation on a path down to the FOMC’s 2% target,” Bowman said, referring to the Federal Open Market Committee.

Bowman’s take contrasts with other top Fed officials favoring a wait-and-see stance depending on how data trends go in the weeks and months ahead. They include Raphael Bostic, president of the Fed Bank of Atlanta. The same goes for former White House economist Austan Goolsbee.

“The pace of underlying inflation is therefore more modest than the Fed expects,” says economist Robin Brooks at the Institute of International Finance.

Unforeseen factors

Either way, the last few years have challenged Milton Friedman’s edict that inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon. First came Covid-19-driven supply-chain disruptions, which created unprecedented mismatches when demand rebounded. Then came giant tidal waves of government stimulus.

Those titanically large transfer payments, coupled with a failure to incentivize productivity increases, left the US, Europe and other regions susceptible to the worst inflation in 30 years. In other words, this time solutions for elevated consumer prices must come from the supply side.

Over the last two years, the Biden White House has indeed put some productivity-enhancing reform wins on the scoreboard. The CHIPS and Science Act is aiming hundreds of billions of dollars at incentivizing innovation and strengthening supply chains. Biden is subsidizing electric-vehicle purchases and upping investments in American manufacturing.

At the same time, Biden rolled out the biggest investments in infrastructure in decades and imposed “Buy American” requirements for government procurement. These steps and others are playing a role in building up America’s economic muscle at home.

It’s only a start, though. Team Biden must pick up the pace on increasing efficiency to ensure that rising wages don’t exacerbate inflation pressures.

“If the US economy were a car, the engine has been sputtering for a while,” says economist Charles Atkins at McKinsey & Co. “In the past 15 years, productivity growth has averaged just 1.4%, even as [major] advances in digital technology put a supercomputer in every pocket. This state of affairs is well known.”

To be sure, Atkins adds, it’s not confined to the United States. Most OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries have seen a drop in labor productivity growth since 2005. But “in the US economy, there’s also a problem with the transmission,” Atkins says. “The link between productivity growth and real incomes has weakened.”

In the postwar boom from 1948-70, Atkins notes, US incomes grew at 3.0% annually, while productivity growth averaged 2.8%. More recently, real incomes have grown at 0.7%, well below the 1.4% gains in productivity.

Worse, he says, “not everyone has shared equally in the relatively low gains in income, and labor participation rates have fallen from 67% in the 1990s to 63% in 2019, as millions have become discouraged about work.”

The good news is that 11 Fed interest-rate increases in 17 months and certain Biden policies helped lower inflation to a 3% rate of increase from 9%-plus a year ago. The bad news is that upward wage pressures could fuel another wave of consumer price spikes.

Lessons from Tokyo

Here, Tokyo’s experience of these last 25 years of government officials abdicating their responsibilities to the Bank of Japan warrants close study in Washington.

Granted, Japan is hardly the only major economy where the government abdicated its responsibility to a group of unelected economists. It happened in Washington in the mid-1990s, when US presidents and the Congress in effect outsourced economic management to then-Fed chairman Alan Greenspan.

Yet Japan took that model to new heights. Since the late 1990s, a succession of governments let the BOJ take the lead. This strategy got supersized in 2013, when the prime minister at the time, the late Shinzo Abe, hired Haruhiko Kuroda to end deflation once and for all.

The lesson here concerns the “Bidenomics” reboot whereby US Democrats hope to ride plans to recalibrate growth drivers to re-election in November 2024. Yet this enterprise must be more than slogans. It mustn’t be an “Abenomics” redux.

In late 2012, Abe took office on the strength of bold pledges for a Japanese Big Bang. In his nearly eight years in power, Abe sidelined efforts to modernize labor markets, reduce bureaucracy, reinvigorate innovation, increase productivity, empower women and restore Tokyo’s place as a top financial center.

In 2013, just after Kuroda grabbed the reins at the BOJ, Abe took his reform extravaganza on the road to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. He urged American punters to “buy my Abenomics.” And buy they did. In 2013 alone, the Nikkei Stock Average surged 57%.

Mostly, though, Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party prodded the BOJ to shift quantitative easing into even higher gears. Leaving matters to the central bank meant flooding world markets with yen. The hope was that the resulting boom in corporate profits would catalyze a virtuous cycle of consumption and wage gains.

In the US, Donald Trump’s administration was all too Abenomics-esque. Rather than do the heavy lifting to increase innovation, productivity and boost US competitiveness, all Trump’s massive $1.5 trillion tax cut in 2017 did was prove that 1980s-like trickle-down economics still does not work.

Rather than rekindle Detroit’s animal spirits, Trump reduced emissions standards, ceding the electric-vehicles advantage to Germany and China.

These and other Trump-era blunders played into Xi Jinping’s hands in Beijing. While Trump was busy making 1985 great again, Team Xi focused on its “Made in China 2025” strategy to dominate everything from EVs to semiconductors to renewable energy to artificial intelligence to biotechnology to aviation.

Biden needs to heed the lessons from both Japan and the 2017-21 Trump era. His administration should be going much bigger on investments in new innovation and productivity. Biden also needs to reduce America’s twin current-account and budget deficits, both of which are increasingly unsustainable.

This doesn’t mean Summers is wrong about US inflation being a more enduring problem than many investors think. But the other half of the price-trajectory equation deserves equal, if not more, attention.

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Some hotels, caterers see boost in business ahead of National Day holiday

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Over at The Fullerton Hotel, which is less than a 10-minute walk from the Padang in the central business district, bookings for rooms have also seen a 15 per cent increase.

Domestic bookings have accounted for a higher-than-usual 30 per cent of its business due to the National Day holiday, the hotel said.

“Normally we do not see this high a percentage of local bookings as compared to normal days. So it is a very good mix of locals (and international visitors),” said the hotel’s country general manager Gino Tan.

He added that on the whole, the hotel is seeing an increasing number of overseas visitors travelling to Singapore.

NDP SPECIAL MENUS

Besides their rooms, the hotels said that tables at their restaurants are also selling out fast as both locals and tourists get into the mood to celebrate Singapore’s 58th birthday.

Both hotels have created special menus to keep up with the festivities.

Andaz Singapore has put together a selection of dishes to celebrate the nation’s multi-cultural landscape. Among the dishes offered are chilli crab cake, prata pizza and tandoori chicken satay.

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Mushroom poisoning deaths: Family lunch mystery grips Australia

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A gloved hand reaching into a bucket of death cap mushroomGetty Images
By Tiffanie Turnbull
BBC News, Sydney

Two Saturdays ago, five people sat down for a family meal in a tiny Australian town.

Within a week, three would be dead, a fourth fighting for life, and the fifth under investigation for potentially poisoning her guests with wild mushrooms.

But the 48-year-old woman who cooked the lunch says she has no idea what happened, and that she loved her family and wouldn’t hurt them.

The peculiar case has captured national attention, puzzled police, and left a tight-knit community reeling.

‘Nefarious’ or ‘accidental’?

The unusual tale began when Gail and Don Patterson stopped for lunch with their grandkids at their daughter-in-law Erin Patterson’s home in Leongatha – a two-hour drive southeast of Melbourne.

With them were the Wilkinsons – Heather, Gail’s sister, and her husband Ian.

All four were much loved members of the nearby town of Korumburra, where Ian was the local Baptist church pastor.

But it was no ordinary lunch. Hours after the meal, all four guests took themselves to the local hospital with what they first believed was severe gastro.

It quickly became clear it was something far worse, and they were transferred to a hospital in Melbourne to receive the best medical care the state had to offer.

Despite that, Heather, 66, and Gail, 70, died on Friday, and Don, 70, on Saturday. Ian, 68, remains in a critical condition in hospital, awaiting a liver transplant.

Ian and Heather Wilkinson

Supplied

Police say they believe the four ate death cap mushrooms – which are highly lethal if ingested.

But oddly, Erin and her two children are just fine.

Police say both kids – who have since been taken into state care as a “precaution”- ate a different meal.

But beyond that, little is clear.

Investigators say they are unsure if Erin ate the same food as her guests, or even if the mushrooms were in the dish that she served.

They also pointed out that she was separated from her husband – who is the Patterson’s son – but described it as an “amicable” split.

“Nefarious activity” has not yet been ruled out though.

“At this point in time, the deaths are unexplained,” the homicide squad’s Dean Thomas told reporters on Monday.

“It could be very innocent, but we just don’t know.”

Ms Patterson says she “can’t fathom what has happened”.

Crying as she spoke to reporters outside of her home, she declined to answer questions about what meals were served to which guests or where the mushrooms had come from.

But she did profess her innocence.

“I didn’t do anything; I loved them.”

Community shaken

As news of the incident spread through the local area, so did horror.

“No one would ever expect that to happen here,” the regional mayor Nathan Hersey told the BBC.

“Who in their right mind would expect that they would lose… people who contribute and give so much… in such a way?

“People are grieving and extremely sad.”

In a statement, the victims’ families paid tribute to them as “pillars of faith” within the community.

“Their love, steadfast faith, and selfless service have left an indelible mark on our families, the Korumburra Baptist Church, the local community, and indeed, people around the globe,” the statement published in the South Gippsland Sentinel Times said.

Korumburra Baptist Church

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But also distraught, is Erin.

“Gail was the mum I didn’t have… my own children have lost their grandmother,” she said.

“They were some of the best people I’ve ever known… I’m devastated they are gone.”

It isn’t the first time the state of Victoria has been rocked by mushroom poisonings, and as foraging expands in popularity, death caps are increasingly mistaken for edible fungus.

They’re found in cool, humid climates all over the world, and look far more innocent than a lot of other deadly varieties. Responsible for 90% of lethal mushroom poisoning globally, a piece the size of a coin is enough to kill an adult if eaten.

In 2020 a spate of poisonings in Victoria put eight people in hospital, one of whom died.

Authorities have again urged people not to eat wild mushrooms they have foraged.

“If you haven’t purchased them from a supermarket, perhaps stay clear of them,” Mr Thomas said.

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Woman jailed for overstaying 7 years in Singapore for son’s education, says it’s worth it

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SINGAPORE: A Chinese woman who overstayed in Singapore for more than seven years claimed she did so for her son’s education and that it was “worth it”.

Kang Lihong, 48, was sentenced to the maximum six months on Tuesday (Aug 8) for overstaying in Singapore under the Immigration Act.

She also received a S$2,000 (US$1,480) fine in lieu of caning as she cannot be caned since she is a woman.

The court heard that Kang was last issued a long-term visit pass valid from March 2015 to April 2016.

When her pass expired, she was given a 62-day visit pass that was valid until June, in order for her to leave the country.

However, Kang did not leave Singapore. Instead, she remained illegally in the country for seven years, one month and 10 days.

She was arrested by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority at her address on Aug 1 this year.

The woman was remanded and appeared in court via video-link. She did not have a lawyer.

HER REASON FOR OVERSTAYING

Speaking through a Mandarin interpreter, Kang said: “The reason why I overstayed is because my child was studying in secondary school, so if I go back to China, I’m afraid that my child cannot stay in Singapore.”

She said her son was “still very young”, so she wanted to stay in Singapore to take care of him.

“After my child graduated and started working, my child asked me to go back to China, but then COVID-19 happened so I was not able to fly back,” said Kang.

She claimed that she “already had the intention to surrender” but ICA arrested her.

“I hope that my case will not affect my child,” she said.

When the judge asked her how old her son currently was, she said he was 25.

“Why would the child be studying in secondary school, and the child is 25 today?” asked the judge.

The woman answered that he studied for five years in secondary school.

She added that air tickets were very expensive when COVID-19 struck, after her son graduated.

“I was afraid if I go back to China, and anything bad happens, it would be very troublesome. So that is why I overstayed,” she said.

The prosecution pointed out that the woman’s son was already 18 at the beginning of her offences. 

“So in that sense, she does not require to remain in Singapore to take care of her child,” he said.

The woman answered that no one was paying for her son’s school fees when he was in polytechnic.

“If I don’t stay here, his education will stop here,” she said. “He couldn’t pay his own school fees.”

She added that there is “no choice” as a mother, adding that she was proud of his son and had to support him as his father was unable to.

“I admit my mistake but I think it’s worth it,” she said.

In sentencing, the judge said the reasons given by the accused for offending were insufficient, with no extreme or exceptional circumstances that qualified as mitigating.

After hearing the sentence, the woman asked repeatedly if the sentence could be shorter.

“The decision stands,” said the judge, and the woman started to cry, saying she wanted to call her son and asking “can’t it be shorter”.

The penalties for overstaying in Singapore for a period exceeding 90 days are a jail term of up to six months, at least three strokes of the cane, or a fine up to S$6,000 if caning is not possible.

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South Korea scout jamboree SOS issued to BTS megastars

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Sung, also a member of the parliament’s national defence committee, said the jamboree had “tarnished our country’s reputation due to inadequate preparation and poor management”.

The defence ministry told AFP that it had “nothing to comment” on Sung’s request.

About 43,000 people had gathered on South Korea’s coast last week for the World Scouts Jamboree.

But it was plagued by problems, initially with a heatwave that led to mass sunstroke casualties. Poor sanitation was another problem.

An approaching typhoon led organisers to scrap the campsite proceedings completely this week.

Thousands of students were being evacuated to Seoul and other parts of the country on Tuesday.

Even before the typhoon warning, Korean media had called the jamboree “a national disgrace”.

But Sung’s request prompted angry responses from some BTS fans online.

“Please don’t use BTS to cover yourselves up!” one wrote on Twitter, which is now being rebranded to X.

“Isn’t it absurd that (the South Korean authorities) are putting the responsibility on BTS to clean up the mess they produced – by not adequately preparing for the Jamboree?” wrote another.

BTS has played a significant role in promoting South Korea’s culture, once even serving as the country’s presidential envoy.

Last year, they threw a free concert in Busan in support of South Korea’s bid to host the World Expo 2023 in the southern port city.

It was their last concert as a group before the members started joining the army for mandatory military service.

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Restaurants around Padang expect full houses during National Day celebrations despite road closures

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HUGE CROWDS EXPECTED

Aside from the Padang, huge crowds are expected to descend upon the Merlion Park, the Esplanade Park, and the surrounding Marina Bay area on National Day to catch glimpses of the fireworks and aerial displays.

Authorities will set up barricades in those areas to block movement and ensure smoother crowd flow.

Food outlets in the affected areas said they are adapting and making their own arrangements for business to run smoothly.

Bistro Aseana, an eatery located in the heart of the action near the Merlion statue, is more than tripling its seating capacity from 40 to 150, by taking advantage of the enclosed spaces from the barricades.

To cope with the extra customers, the bistro is engaging additional part-timers to increase its manpower by 40 per cent on that day.

“It’s very important that we are part of the celebrations. Everyone here is in a celebratory mood, and hence we have to create diverse packages for them to enjoy the experience,” said Mr Eric Chan, the diner’s managing director.

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