SINGAPORE: Travellers who snapped up All Nippon Airways (ANA) tickets at erroneously discounted prices last week will have their bookings cancelled and refunded fully, the airline said on Tuesday (Apr 25). In a notice posted on its websites, ANA said that there had been a “technical issue with the currencyContinue Reading
The spokesman also reportedly said that they do not think the noodles which were tested by the Taipei authorities were produced by the company.
“They (Taipei’s Department of Health) have not shown us their results or the samples they used but we do not think they used our instant noodles.
“This is because when we asked them what samples were used, the expiry date of the noodles did not tally with the ones we sent to Taiwan last year (in 2022),” said the spokesman, as quoted by The Star.
According to Bernama, citing Taiwan’s Central News Agency, two types of instant noodles made by brands from Malaysia and Indonesia were found to contain a type of carcinogenic substance.
In a statement, Taipei’s Department of Health reportedly said on Monday that a batch of “Ah Lai White Curry Noodles” from Malaysia and a batch of “Indomie: Special Chicken Flavour” noodles from Indonesia both contained ethylene oxide, a chemical compound associated with lymphoma and leukemia
The findings were part of the city’s 2023 inspection of instant noodle available in Taipei.
Testing by the Taipei authorities found that ethylene oxide was detected in both the noodles and flavour packet of the Malaysian product and the flavour packet of the Indonesian-made instant noodle, said the health department, according to Bernama.
The unspecified retailer from which the samples were collected has reportedly been asked to pull the two products off their shelves.
The products’ importers will reportedly be fined between NT$60,000 (US$1,958) and NT$200 million.
According to information on the website of Taiwan’s Toxic and Chemical Substances Bureau under the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration, ethylene oxide is poisonous when consumed or inhaled.
Bernama reported that aside from leading to lymphoma and leukemia, ethylene oxide can also seriously irritate the skin and eyes of those who come into contact with the substance and can even trigger birth and hereditary defects.
The wife of a high-level police officer has been arrested for the cyanide-murder of a woman from Kanchanaburi, and investigators suspect her in the deaths of six other women.
Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej, the Central Investigation Bureau commissioner, identified the suspect as Sararat “Aem” Rangsiwuthaporn. He did not reveal her husband’s name, but he was reported to be a deputy provincial police superintendent in Ratchaburi province.
Crime Suppression Division (CSD) police armed with an arrest warrant, dated April 25, issued by the Criminal Court, arrested Ms Sararat on Tuesday about 11am at the government office complex on Chaeng Wattana road in Bangkok. She had a bottle of cyanide in her possession.
The arrest followed a complaint filed with the CSD by the mother and the elder sister of Siriporn “Koy” Khanwong, 32, who was from Kanchanaburi. Ms Siriporn collapsed and died on the bank of the Mae Klong river in Ban Pong district, where she went with friends to release fish for merit-making on April 14. Cyanide was found in her body.
Investigators came to the belief that Ms Sararat might be the person who mixed cyanide in Siriporn’s food, causing her death. She allegedly also stole the victim’s valuables. This led to her arrest.
After her arrest, Ms Sararat was taken to CSD headquarters for questioning.
Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop said the investigation was being expanded into whether Ms Sararat had anything to do with the deaths of six other women she had been in contact with and who died in a similar manner.
About 11pm on Tuesday, the death of another woman, Kanika Tuladecharak, 44, was brought to deputy police chief Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn’s attention by her father and daughter (names withheld). The two believed Ms Sararat was responsible for Kanika’s death.
The daughter said that on Sept 11, 2022, Kanika drove from her home in Bangkok to meet Ms Sararat in Ratchaburi. From there, her mother travelled in the same car with Ms Sararat. According to an account given to her family, Kanika later fainted and died at a PTT petrol station in Potharam district, the daughter said. She said some of her mother’s valuables had disappeared. They included a mobile phone, cash and some gold jewellery.
The family suspected Ms Sararat was responsible for Kanika’s death.
At the Royal Thai Police office, Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas, the national police chief, said Pol Gen Surachate was in charge of the Siriporn investigation. Since there were six other similar cases, the investigation would be expanded to establish whether all seven cases were committed by the same person, since most of them occurred in Ratchaburi, he said.
Pol Gen Surachate said there were seven deaths in total that seemed related, the last one being in Ban Pong district. He would find out if and how the seven cases were connected. Two of the seven who died were policewomen, he added.
He said he had contacted the parents of five of the seven women for questioning. Some were not even aware their children might have been poisoned and, therefore, did not file a police complaint.
Pol Gen Surachate said the seven cases occurred in Kanchanaburi, Nakhon Pathom and Ratchaburi provinces, and he had already asked police there to investigate further and report to him.
CHON BURI: Only one jet ski was involved in the accident which claimed the lives of the driver and his 7-year-old passenger at South Pattaya beach on Monday night, not two as initially believed, a senior marine official said.
It also emerged that the young boy was seated in front of the driver, who was showing him how to drive.
The jet ski was hit by waves and overturned.
The driver drowned. He was not wearing his life jacket. He had given it to the boy to wear. The child was grievously injured and later died in hospital.
The owner has been fined 10,000 baht for operating an unlicensed jet ski, and another 10,000 baht for a second unlicensed jet ski that went out to help after the accident.
It had been widely reported that two jet skis had collided, that the driver of the second machine, a man of Indian appearance, had left the beach before police arrived and was being sought for questioning. This was later found to be incorrect.
Ekkarat Khantharo, director of the Pattaya marine office, said on Tuesday afternoon that an initial investigation found there was no second jet ski involved. He spoke after questioning the owner of the jet ski on Tuesday.
During questioning the boat owner, who was not identified, had said an employee had been driving the jet ski, which he had bought in Suphan Buri for 50,000 baht and had not yet applied for a licence to operate it.
The employee took the jet ski out to give the young boy a 15 minute ride, charging 500 baht. The boy sat in front of the driver. The jet ski hit waves and overturned, leading to the death of the driver, who was not wearing a life jacket at the time. The boy, who was wearing a buoyancy vest, was thrown into the sea and received fatal injuries.
Another jet ski belonging to the same operator went out to help.
The Pattaya marine chief said the owner was fined 10,000 baht for use of an unlicensed jet ski and another 10,000 baht for the second jet ski that went to help, because that was also unlicensed.
Police were initially told, about 7pm, that two jet skis had collided in the sea off the south end of Pattaya beach, near Walking Street.
Thai media reported the dead boy’s grandparents had taken him to visit Pattaya. They hired a jet ski driver, at a cost of 500 baht, to take the boy for a ride to view the beauty of the beach from the water. The crash occurred about 30 metres from the shore.
The Marine Department had earlier ordered that jet ski services halt at 6pm for fear of accidents, but some operators ignored the time limit, Thai News Agency reported.
The boy, Pathomporn Polrat, 7, was pulled from the water by jet ski operators. He was seriously injured, including a broken jaw, and was rushed to a hospital, where he later died.
The jet ski driver, Pornsuphan Phumnok, 35, was found drowned, located by rescuers after a 30-minute search.
Witnesses said there was a second jet ski involved, that he driver was of Indian appearance and had walked away from the scene after the collision and disappeared.
Police examined security camera recordings from the scene to establish the cause of the accident.
The Marine Department confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that a man was being questioned about the accident. This man was later confirmed to be the jet ski owner. No second jet ski or driver was invovled.
Rescue workers give first aid to the injured boy after he was brought to the shore. The boy was pronounced dead at hospital at 10,10pm on Monday. (Photo: Chaiyot Pupattanapong)
BANGKOK: Former UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday (Apr 25) urged the Myanmar military to halt violence in the conflict-racked country and engage with its opponents to end the bloody crisis. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in February 2021,Continue Reading
SINGAPORE: A widely reported projection of 3,500 high-net-worth individuals being granted Singapore citizenship in 2023 is “highly misleading, with no credible basis”, said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday (Apr 26). Last Thursday, Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao published an interview with Mr Andrew Amolls, head of research atContinue Reading
Hospitals under the National University Health System (NUHS) – the National University Hospital, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and Alexandra Hospital – have also been implementing measures to improve wait times, a spokesperson told CNA.
“For example, NUH has created additional beds by converting existing spaces and inpatient wards to help alleviate the high attendance and patient traffic, such as the new set-up of the second Acute Medical Unit,” the spokesperson said.
“Operating hours of allied health support services, including radiology and physiotherapy, have also been extended during weekdays as well as over weekends to manage the increased workload.”
At Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, more beds in the ambulatory ward for day surgery patients are being used for inpatients, while more basic care assistants have been recruited.
“Locum nurses have also been brought in to support patient care at the emergency department,” the spokesperson said.
“Family members are engaged for caregiver training so that they can better care for patients when they are discharged home.
“Patients are also referred to community partners for follow-up support such as medication adherence and meals on wheels services.”
Alexandra Hospital, which had the lowest median waiting times during the week of Apr 9 to Apr 15, has also been taking in patients from the other two NUHS hospitals.
Where clinically appropriate, NUHS hospitals have been offering alternative arrangements for their patients, such as teleconsultation, tele-rehabilitation, tele-monitoring, remote prescribing and delivery of medication, the spokesperson said.
“We seek the public’s understanding that longer waiting time is expected at our emergency departments and priority will be given to patients with more serious conditions and who require admission,” the spokesperson said.
“Only people with serious or life-threatening emergencies, such as chest pain, breathlessness and uncontrollable bleeding, should visit the emergency department as this allows those in need of emergency care to be attended to quickly and helps to preserve the hospital’s capacity for those who truly need acute hospital care.
“We urge members of the public to visit their general practitioners or a 24-hour clinic for non-emergencies.”
BEIJING: China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday (Apr 25) that all inbound travellers will only need to show COVID-19 antigen test results taken within 48 hours before boarding flights starting Saturday, dropping the PCR test requirement. Currently, China requires inbound travellers from some countries to take PCR tests before enteringContinue Reading
World media have been abuzz with the United Nations’ State of World Population 2023 report released this month, declaring India the world’s most populous country.
Equal focus has been on the People’s Republic of China experiencing its first ever population shrinkage in the last six decades and how its elderly population will overtake its working-age population by 2080. This is projected to have a profound effect on everything in China, from the economy to President Xi Jinping’s legitimacy.
Some blame China’s population decline on the one-child policy imposed during Deng Xiaoping’s rule during early 1980s. That policy was finally scrapped in 2015, but the current population decline is expected by some to bring about a total collapse of China, in political, economic, and demographic terms, triggering unprecedented global volatility.
Put together, such reports have sought to highlight the population issue as one more point of comparison between China and India. Speculations about whether this will become another point of confrontation have seen experts cite Premier Li Qiang’s reference to China focusing on a “talent” dividend to compensate for its loss of the demographic dividend to India.
Indeed, some television and other media debates have sought to ask whether India’s rise as the next economic powerhouse will trigger China’s decline, thus presenting this as a zero sum equation between the two Asian giants.
All this rhetoric calls for a serious rebuttal, to put things in perspective, and to question various basic assumptions in these super-hyped, sensational insinuations.
First and foremost, all these estimates are just that, estimates. Based on projected trends, the aforementioned UN report concludes that India’s population this year will exceed that of China by 2.9 million. This figure, when put against the 2.9 billion combined population of China and India, leaves too little space for any margin of error: 0.001%, to be precise.
Now compare this with the margin of error in China’s recent census. The census for 2020 was conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic, with an officially accepted undercount rate of 0.05%. This is way above the aforementioned 0.001% margin of error in predicting India as the world’s most populous nation.
Second and more important to remember is that China’s population projections do not include its autonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macau, which together stand at more than 8 million people – way more than the margin of 2.9 million to make India the world’s most populous nation. This, of course, also does not include the 24 million people of Taiwan, which China considers its renegade province.
Third, in the middle of the pandemic, India was not able to conduct census. This means that its current reliable census figures remain those of 2011, and figures used since then they represent broad trend projections that will remain tentative until the next census is conducted. India first postponed its census to 2021 and has since postponed it to 2024.
As is often said, absolute numbers always miss hidden subtleties that make a real difference. The focus, for example, has been primarily on the workforce, and India’s workforce is expected to be 900 million. But irrespective of the median age of the workforce, as the locomotive of national economic growth they may be carrying varying productive potential.
Apart from unemployment figures, which also reflect the complex reality of a bloated labor force shifting out of agriculture, half of this workforce consists of women. China holds an impressive record in women’s employment even in comparison to most developed nations, and it is twice the world average. Compared with China’s 72%, India’s female participation in the labor market has been as low as 29%.
There is also debate on whether India having world’s largest workforce will follow China’s example to emerge as another economic powerhouse in the making. Again, there is no reason to believe India will – 0r can – follow China’s example. This is not just because the two have had very different cultures and models of development but also because China’s began in the early 1990s when the world had just come out of the Cold War and the brief unipolar moment.
China’s economic rise took off in an era when manufacturing was still seen as the main driver of economic growth. By comparison, growth rates are today driven by the services sector, especially those led by Internet-enabled services and by digital platforms, where India already has established credentials.
India accordingly has been experimenting with blending its demographic dividend with its talent dividend.
Moreover, India becoming the world’s most populous nation is not as new as is being made out in the aforementioned media reports. These demographic trends have been a well known and a long time in the making. So understandably, both China and India have been working to deal with this reality and have put in place multiple initiatives to face the various challenges and opportunities that flow from this transition.
Finally, the transition has been on expected lines. It is a commonplace that a rise in prosperity, especially with more women joining the productive workforce, has a direct impact on birth rates and women’s fertility. The growth rates of the populations of China and India have been slowing since the 1950s.
So just as China has experienced a population decline this year, India will also be experiencing a similar decline in coming years. Already, India’s fertility rate has fallen from 5.7 per woman in 1950 to 2.2 per woman now. Only in the face of its unprecedented economic rise has the slowdown in China’s population growth happened faster than India’s.
Likewise, an aging population need not necessarily lead to lower productivity per capita. Infusions of technology, skill development and automation can actually make longevity an asset, allowing a trained person to work for longer years. Especially with the shift toward e-commerce and digital platforms in increasing number of industries, the correlation of age and production does not hold true in the case of advanced nations.
No doubt, by all estimates, India is ordained to surpass China’s population size, but it need not happen this year and should not be seen as marking any breaking point in either their growth and development trajectories or their bilateral equations.
Both China and India have always had large populations and large workforces that have expanded gradually over the last half-century.
If anything, the world will be witnessing the expanding global outreach of both Chinese and Indian people around the world and how it impacts the the United States, whose population is barely one-fourth of either China’s or India’s.
Follow Swaran Singh on Twitter @SwaranSinghJNU.
BANGKOK: A conservative Thai political party is seeking to woo voters ahead of next month’s general election with a pledge to legalise sex toys, pointing to the fiscal – and frisky – benefits. Despite its reputation for being one of Southeast Asia’s most sexually liberated countries, Buddhist-majority Thailand remains conservativeContinue Reading