BEIJING: A Beijing court on Monday (Nov 27) began hearing compensation cases filed by the families of dozens of Chinese people who died on board a Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared almost 10 years ago. The MH370 jet vanished on Mar 8, 2014, carrying 239 people – mostly from China –Continue Reading
Getty ImagesNew Zealand’s new government has announced it will scrap the nation’s world-leading smoking ban to help fund tax cuts.
The legislation, introduced under the previous Jacinda Ardern-led government, planned to ban cigarette sales next year to anyone born after 2008.
Smoking is the main cause of preventable deaths in New Zealand, and the policy had aimed to stop young generations from picking up the habit.
The change has shocked health experts.
Public health modelling had suggested that the Smokefree laws would save up to 5,000 lives each year.
A national Māori health organisation, Hāpai Te Hauora, called it an “unconscionable blow to the health and wellbeing of all New Zealanders”.
Smoking rates, and associated disease and health issues, are highest among New Zealand’s indigenous Māori population, for whom experts had said the policy would have the most positive impact.
Along with banning sales to young generations, the legislation would have removed tobacco products from 90% of stores currently selling them in New Zealand and also regulated cigarettes to have a lower amount of nicotine in them.
New Zealand’s Smokefree policy is believed to have inspired the UK government in September to announce a similar smoking ban for young people.
However in New Zealand, the policy had also been consistently criticised by business groups, with owners of newsagents and corner shops criticising the loss of revenue from tobacco sales – even with government subsidies.
Conservative lawmakers had also argued a ban would lead to a black market for tobacco.
On Saturday, New Zealand’s new finance minister Nicola Willis said the coalition government would repeal the laws, to help fund tax cuts pledged during the election.
The main party in charge, National, had not campaigned on a repeal of the laws – so the announcement has shocked health experts who believed the policy to be safe in a National government.
However Ms Willis said National’s partners in the coalition- the populist New Zealand First and libertarian Act – had been “insistent” on reversing the Smoke-free legislation.
Despite a landslide victory in the 14 October election, the centre-right National party has struggled for weeks over policy in its negotiations to form coalition government with the two minor parties.
A deal was only agreed to on Friday, six weeks after the election, allowing the new government to be sworn in on Monday.
Both minor parties blocked one of National’s flagship policies to open up foreign property ownership – which the party had been relying on to fund tax cuts for middle and higher-income earners. Ms Willis told New Zealand broadcaster TV3’s Newshub Nation on Saturday that led to the party looking elsewhere.
“We have to remember that the changes to the smoke-free legislation had a significant impact on the government books, with about a billion dollars there,” she said.
But several public health experts have criticised the direction.
“The suggestion that tax cuts would be paid by people who continue to smoke is absolutely shocking,” Emeritus Prof Robert Beaglehole, chair of New Zealand’s Action for Smokefree 2025 committee told Pacific Media Network.
Public health modelling conducted in 2022 had shown the Smokefree policy would have saved New Zealand’s health system about NZ$1.3bn (£630m; $790m) over the next 20 years.
New Zealand still aims to reduce its national smoking rate to 5% by 2025, with the aim of eventually eliminating it altogether.
More than 80,000 adults have quit in the past year, its national data shows. Currently, about 8% of its adult population smokes.
SINGAPORE: Marina Bay Sands (MBS) is taking measures to monitor the situation at its taxi stands amid concern about touts that are targeting passengers.
8world reported on Sunday (Nov 26) that multiple vehicles at the popular tourist destination’s taxi stand quoted “exorbitant” prices, citing traffic jams and difficulty in hailing a ride on rainy days.
The integrated resort said in response to queries from 8world that more manpower will be deployed and traffic cones placed to prevent taxis from parking in unauthorised areas.
There are also signboards in various languages cautioning members of the public about touting.
One such notice seen by 8world stated that taxi fares must be based on the meter, plus applicable surcharges, and that a receipt must be provided upon request.
An 8world reporter who pretended to be in urgent need of a ride on Saturday evening was asked for S$50 (US$37) to S$65 for a 4km ride to Orchard Road.
One driver also told the reporter to first board his vehicle before discussing the fare. However, after the reporter revealed her identity, he said the fare was based on the meter.
When told that a private-hire car ride only cost S$20, the driver said: “You can take a private-car hire then.”
At least six sports utility vehicle taxis drove into the waiting area with their windows wound down at around 5pm on Sunday.
The drivers were observed asking prospective passengers about their destination before quoting them a fixed price. Some people were seen accepting these deals while others refused.
A tourist from India was quoted S$65 when he told the driver that he was headed to Little India, a distance of about 4km.
The man, who was travelling with several family members including children and the elderly, told 8world that he knew the fare was expensive but accepted it citing the rainy weather and that his family was tired.
Another tourist from the US told 8world that he would only pay S$60 for a ride to Orchard Road as a last resort because a private-hire car only costs about S$20. He added that he was surprised that there were taxi touts in Singapore and felt it was “unfair to tourists” who had no way of lodging a complaint.
A Singapore resident of foreign nationality separately told 8world that the drivers would quote a higher price if the potential passengers looked like “foreigners”.
Getty ImagesA Thai para-athlete and former soldier shot his bride and three others before killing himself on his wedding day, police told the BBC.
Chaturong Suksuk, 29 and Kanchana Pachunthuek, 44, were married on Saturday in north-east Thailand.
According to reports, he left the wedding party abruptly and returned with a gun, shooting his wife, her 62-year-old mother and 38-year-old sister.
Stray bullets hit two guests, who were rushed to hospital. One of them died.
Police told the BBC Chaturong “was quite intoxicated at the time”, but his motive remains unclear. He had bought the gun and ammunition legally last year, they added.
Thai media, citing what guests at the party told the police, said the couple had an argument during the party. It also reported that Chaturong had felt insecure about the age gap between him and Kanchana.
But police said this was still speculation, adding that they had collected evidence and expected to close the case “soon”.
Chaturong and Kanchana had lived together for three years before they married, according to Thai media.
Chaturong had clinched a silver medal in swimming at the Asean Para Games in Indonesia last year. He was also believed to be on the list of athletes competing in the World Abilitysport Games in Thailand next month.
He had lost his right leg while on duty with the paramilitary light infantry force, which patrols Thailand’s borders.
While mass shooting are rare, gun ownership is common in Thailand.
Last month, three people were killed in a shooting in a luxury mall in Bangkok. And last October, a former policeman killed 37 children in a gun and knife attack at a nursery in north-east Thailand.
SINGAPORE: Most escalator incidents in the first 10 months of this year arose from user behaviour, and the most common was caused by the carrying of bulky items, said the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) on Monday (Nov 27).
A total of 632 escalator incidents were reported from January to October, with 97 per cent of the cases linked to improper use.
Less than 3 per cent – 16 cases – were a result of mechanical faults such as the handrail stopping while the escalator was still in operation.
The top cause was due to users carrying bulky items including prams, luggage and shopping trolleys, which accounted for 17 per cent of all cases.
Another 16 per cent were due to users moving on an escalator or not holding the handrail. About 12 per cent were attributed to the physical health conditions of the user who, for instance, might be feeling dizzy or unwell while using the escalator.
About 11 per cent of incidents were a result of users being distracted, including from the use of mobile phones. The fifth most common cause – 9 per cent – arose from shoes or body parts getting trapped in the escalator steps, particularly among young children.
On the cases linked to the carrying of bulky items, more than half of the incidents involved users aged 55 and above, said BCA.
“This data underscores the need for more targeted initiatives to discourage individuals with bulky items from using escalators for their personal safety,” it said.
BCA’s group director for electrical and mechanical engineering group Teo Orh Hai said: “Making escalators safe for all users is a shared responsibility.”
“Given the high rate of incidents linked to user behaviour, we urge everyone to be more aware and careful while using escalators.”
SINGAPORE: When he was in his late teens, a student volunteer with a non-profit society sexually abused three boys whom he was tasked to care for or give tuition to.
The crimes went uncovered until 2019, when one of the victims, who was now a man, read a news report about sexual assault and decided to lodge a police report about the abuse he had suffered as a boy.
Investigations uncovered two other victims, whom the prosecution said suffered scars and trauma as a result of the offences.
The offender, a 48-year-old primary school teacher who has been suspended, was sentenced to eight years’ jail on Monday (Nov 27).
He pleaded guilty to three charges of committing an indecent act with a child and having carnal intercourse against the order of nature, with another eight charges taken into consideration.
The offender and the society he volunteered with cannot be named due to gag orders issued by the court to protect the identities of the victims, who are now between 36 and 40.
The court heard that the man was a beneficiary of an unnamed society when he was a boy.
When he was a 17-year-old student, he began volunteering at the same society, which provided student care services for children from low-income or troubled households.
As a student volunteer, the offender was tasked to supervise children in their studies and to befriend them.
However, he sexually abused three of them – V1, who was between 10 and 12; V2, who was between nine and 12; and V3, who was between five and eight at the time.
He committed an indecent act with V2 in a children’s playroom, after the rest of the children and volunteers had left, sometime between 1993 and 1994.
Between that same time period, the offender also began to hit V1’s private parts over his shorts.
The boy did not think much of it at first as he thought it was part of regular horseplay.
However, on one occasion, the offender gave V1 private mathematics tuition. He asked the boy to sit on his lap and would slap his private parts if the boy gave the wrong answer to math questions.
The offender also sexually abused V1 and V2 while giving them private tuition at V2’s home.
He forced a sex act on V3, causing the boy to feel uncomfortable, angry and very disgusted.
However, none of the boys reported what happened at the time of the offences between 1993 and 1995, as they were too young to understand that what the perpetrator had done was wrong.
The offender was trusted by the society and the parents of the children, and no concerns were raised.
The man stopped volunteering in 1999 and became a primary school teacher.
The case went silent for decades until August 2019, when V1 read a news article about victims of sexual crimes.
He felt motivated to make a police report, revealing what the offender had done to him when he was receiving childcare services between Primary 3 and Primary 6.
Investigations uncovered the offences against the other two victims, and the offender was arrested later in August 2019.
The man’s lawyer, Mr Rai Satish, said his client had not offended since.
“In the course of his career, he has had interactions with hundreds, if not thousands of children and he has never abused his position of trust and responsibility in relation to these children,” said Mr Satish.
“He had learnt while training for his career that what he had done was wrong, and he learnt what is appropriate and inappropriate behaviour.”
The lawyer said his client was a teenager when he committed the offences and he was “trying to understand this sexual awakening which was happening to him”.
“Unfortunately, he did not have a proper outlet or guidance. He was insecure about his sexual awakening and this was a major impetus to the commission of the offences,” said Mr Satish.
He added that there was not a great age disparity between the victims and the accused, who was a student himself.
At this, Justice Dedar Singh Gill interjected and said he had “great difficulty” accepting this argument, as the accused was plainly in a position of authority.
The lawyer acknowledged this and added that the victims had said that they forgave the accused, or that the accused had gone out of his way to help them.
The offender was allowed to read a letter he had personally prepared. Unfolding a piece of paper, he said he was deeply remorseful.
In a shaky voice, he said he accepted full responsibility for his actions and apologised to his victims, as well as his parents and brother.
“I promised my late father, who passed away in 2012, to take care of my mother,” said the man.
“When I was in need of a bailor, my mother used up her life savings. I have let both my parents down. Sorry father, mother and brother. I am ashamed of what I have done, and I hurt my family the most.”
He said he stayed at home most of the time when he was on bail and cried himself to sleep at the thought of what he did.
“My mother suffered when she saw what happened to me. I have written apology letters to the three victims and handed them to my lawyer as I was not allowed to contact them,” said the man.
“I definitely will not perform such acts again as I do not want my parents to be ashamed of me.”
Deputy Public Prosecutor Tay Jia En asked for eight to 10 years’ jail. Not only was the accused a student volunteer, he was described as a special volunteer, who was given accolades.
While the defence said it looked like V3 had forgiven the offender, Mr Tay said it was clear that V1 and V3 still carried with them “scars of their trauma”.
V1 suffered from an identity crisis and confidence issues, while the offences estranged V3 from his mother, who did not believe V3 when V3 tried to tell her about the incidents.
While the offender has moved on and achieved “some measure of success” as a teacher, the victims still carry with them these scars, said Mr Tay.
Although the offender was a “lauded student volunteer” who was praised by the society, Mr Tay said accused persons sometimes “carry on with two parallel lives”, with the man’s positive engagements contrasted with the “darker side” of him that nobody could detect.
The judge noted that the man had plainly abused his position of trust and authority over the victims, who were vulnerable due to their young ages.
Across all the charges, the offences stretch from 1992 to 1996, said the judge.
However, he noted the plea of guilt and the man’s relative youth when he committed the offences. He allowed the man to begin his jail term in December.
PUBLISHED : 27 Nov 2023 at 12:58
Thais living or travelling in Myanmar are being advised to avoid areas under martial law, particularly in northern Shan State, for their own safety.
The travel warning was issued by the Thai embassy in Yangon. Thais should avoid travelling to those areas, the embassy said.
The embassy said Myanmar had banned foreigners from buying air tickets to Lashio and Tachilek in Shan State since May this year. Violators could be jailed or fined under immigration law.
Before travelling to cities in Myanmar – including Yangon, Mandalay and Bagan – travellers are advised to check the situation with reliable sources or tour companies.
Thais residing or travelling in Myanmar are asked to register their places of residence with the embassy for contact and information. In case of emergency they are advised to call the embassy in Yangon at +95 9880916795 use the Official Thai Consular ID Line: @395cxuuo.
SINGAPORE: A property agent who helped sell a condominium unit for an 80-year-old woman withdrew S$20,000 (US$15,000) from the proceeds for his own expenses.
Louiis Ignatius Tan Puay Meng, 58, pleaded guilty on Monday (Nov 27) to one count of dishonest misappropriation, with another two charges to be taken into consideration.
Tan had been set for trial, but chose to plead guilty on Monday.
The court heard that Tan was a real estate agent working for Savills Residential at the time.
In 2019, he helped an 80-year-old woman sell a unit in the Jupiter 18 condominium in Changi.
In November 2019, the victim received a total sum of about S$462,300 in two cheques for the sale of the property.
That same month, Tan and the victim set up a joint bank account to deposit the proceeds of the sale.
Tan was made a joint owner of the bank account for the express purpose to keep track of the money.
He assured the victim that he would “take care of her for the rest of her life” and that he would not use any of the money in the account for himself.
He also assured the victim that it was safe to set up the joint bank account and that any withdrawals would be done only via cheques signed by both of them.
Trusting Tan, the victim agreed to set up the account so Tan could help safekeep the money.
The pair deposited the full sum of S$462,318.21 at a DBS Treasures Centre on Nov 29, 2019.
However, between Dec 17 and Dec 25 in 2019, Tan withdrew a total of S$20,000 from the account without the victim’s knowledge or permission.
He made the transfers to his POSB account via Internet banking and spent the money on his personal expenditures.
The victim discovered in February 2020 through a bank statement that money was missing from the account and asked for more statements.
She withdrew the balance sum on Mar 2, 2020 and closed the joint account before lodging a police report.
Tan’s lawyer told the court that his client has had schizophrenia for a “very long time” and suffered a relapse lately.
He said he intended to apply for a psychiatric report for various purposes including to see if incarceration would be suitable for Tan.
He will return to court for mitigation and sentencing in January.
MAS also noted that momentum in the private residential property market has moderated, with price pressures easing, and transaction activity slowing and stabilising to pre-COVID levels.
Property price growth moderated from 11.4 per cent year-on-year in 1Q2023 to 4.4 per cent year-on-year in 3Q2023.
The transaction volume of private homes in 3Q2023 was about 15 per cent lower year-on-year, with this moderation seen across both new sales and resales.
Foreign demand for private homes in Singapore doubled from about 3 per cent in 2021, during the pandemic, to over 6 per cent in 4Q2022 and 1Q2023 after travel restrictions were eased.
However, MAS noted that after the latest round of market cooling measures in April, foreign demand has fallen to about 4 per cent of total transaction activity in 2023 to date.
The additional buyer’s stamp duty for foreigners buying any home in Singapore doubled to 60 per cent in that round of measures.
Rents also continued to rise but at a much slower pace, at 0.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter in 3Q2023. This is the smallest quarterly gain since end-2020, said MAS.
It expected rental pressures to continue weakening as a large number of homes are expected to be completed from 2023 to 2025 – about double the 20,000 flats finished between 2020 and 2022.
MAS said the global financial system faces increased risks from the interaction of “higher-for-longer” interest rates and latent vulnerabilities built up during the pandemic.
Geopolitical tensions and climate change also have the potential to rapidly turn into significant financial stability risks.
“In particular, an escalation of the Israel-Hamas conflict or Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine would pose further downside risks to the conjuncture.
“Within the region, a more pronounced slowdown in China from its property sector difficulties could weigh further on the global economy,” said MAS.
It sounded a cautionary note for households.
“Households have managed the transition to higher interest rates well thus far, cushioned by income growth and accumulated savings. Income growth was underpinned by strong labour market conditions,” said MAS.
However, it expected nominal wage gains to moderate amid slower growth and global macroeconomic uncertainties.
“Borrowers should thus remain prudent and maintain their financial buffers where they can, to protect against potential shocks,” said the regulator.
PUBLISHED : 27 Nov 2023 at 12:22
The Transport Ministry plans to build two new elevated tollways, Pathum Thani-Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi-western Bangkok, at an estimated total cost of 87 billion baht.
Transport Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit said on Monday one project would be a north-bound extension of the Don Muang tollway, from Rangsit area in Pathum Thani to Bang Pa-in district of Ayutthaya.
The new elevated tollway would cost an estimated 31.28 billion baht and be 22 kilometres long.
The private sector would be invited to tender for the consruction of the new tollway and its operation, and the state would repay the cost later.
The other project was for an elevated 35.85-kilometre tollway above the existing western outer ring road of Bangkok, between Bang Khunthian district and Bang Bua Thong district of Nonthaburi. The construction cost was estimated at 56.03 billion baht.
Mr Suriya expected the two new tollways would open in 2028.
