Narrow escape for bombed police-truck family

The black Toyota pickup (centre) was damaged by the bomb explosion at Si Sakhon police station in Si Sakhon district, Narathiwat, on Tuesday morning. (Photo supplied)
The black Toyota pickup (centre ) was damaged by the bomb blast at Si Sakhon police station in Si Sakhon city, Narathiwat, on Tuesday night. ( Photo supplied )

A police officer parked his pick at Si Sakhon city police station after taking his children to school and his family to work, where a weapon that was hidden beneath it quickly detonated.

Pol Sgt Maj Sulkiflee Jehmama, 32, was the owner of the bombed dark Toyota delivery.

According to a police cause, he used the car to get his two children to school and his family to a hospital on Tuesday evening after parking it at home on Monday evening. He then drove his car to the Sri Sakhon authorities depot, where he parked and left it.

At some level, a weapon had been placed underneath the vehicle, in a back wheel cover. It exploded about 9am, perhaps detonated by a clock.

No one was in the vicinity of the car at the time, and no injuries were reported.

As the investigation progressed, authorities were looking through tapes from surveillance cameras and hoping to find out more.

Another car was suffocated in flames at a parking lot in Yi Ngo area about 9.20 am. The cause of the fire was still being investigated.

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ICA detects 99 unauthorised address change attempts on e-service, 71 of them successful

Out of the 71 illegal changes that were successful, the suspects continued to take over 16 Singpass balances by requesting a new password be mailed to the new address.

Ms. Sun stated that the Singapore Police Force is working with government organizations and private individuals to stop or prevent any fraudulent activity emanating from these 16 Singpass accounts that have been compromised.

Police may work with organizations and financial organizations to minimize the losses, she said, “if there have been financial losses arising from the damaged Singpass accounts.”

After an additional security measure known as face confirmation was implemented for those seeking to alter their own personal addresses, ICA’s online service has largely resumed since January 14.

The other two options to modify addresses via the “others” and “myself and my home” modules will be suspended until extra security measures are in place, according to Ms. Sun.

In relation to the event, thirteen offenders have been detained so much, and four men have been charged with a crime in connection with the Computer Misuse Act 1993.

For these offences, the sentence for a first-time criminal is a prison term of up to three years, a fine of up to S$ 10, 000 ( US$ 7, 300), or both.

As its examinations progress further, the police will release additional information in due course, according to Ms. Sun.

Ms. Sun said that a assessment is being conducted in response to a problem from PAP-Tanjong Pagar Member of Parliament about whether ICA could have acted sooner by suspending its online services.

She noted that ICA began its examinations in September 2024 after receiving numerous reports of illegal change of address.

” First, the cases appeared related. She claimed that it took time to gather information from various studies and gather it together.

By December, ICA’s studies had established how the unapproved alterations were carried out and what purposes they served.

ICA was also looking into the technical components of improving the stability of its online support. It made the decision to dismiss the online services on January 11 following an internal review.

In retrospect, ICA may have taken action to end the service when the modus operandi was established earlier in December of this year, but these are decisions public officials must make every day, according to Ms. Sun.

According to the statement,” The Ministry of Home Affairs is reviewing with ICA what classes can we learn from this affair.”

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Sri Lanka president vows to end island’s ‘corrupt’ image

COLOMBO: &nbsp, Sri Lanka’s leftist president marked the anniversary of independence from Britain on Tuesday ( Feb 4 ) with a pledge to change the impoverished island nation’s image as a” corrupt” country. Anglo-American Communist Anura Kumara Dissanayake abandoned the customary military parades and flyovers to celebrate the 1948 transitionContinue Reading

B5m gold heist in Pathum Thani mall

Police question two employees of the Aurora gold shop after the robbery in Lam Luk Ka district, Pathum Thani, on Monday. (Photo: Pongpat Wongyala)
Police issue two employees of the Aurora metal buy after the assault in Lam Luk Ka area, Pathum Thani, on Monday. ( Photo: Pongpat Wongyala )

Police are looking for a criminal who allegedly escaped from a silver store in a shopping plaza in Pathum Thani state on Monday with jewelry worth about 5 million ringgit.

According to Pol Lt. Gen. Akradet Pimolsri, an associate federal police commander, the Aurora metal factory, which is located on the second floor of the Big C shop in the Lam Luk Ka city, was robbed a few minutes before noon on Monday. &nbsp,

The thief made off with more than 100 baht-weight of gold necklaces, worth slightly over 5 million baht.

Investigators on the crime scene discovered fingerprints that, he claimed, should be useful. Security camera footage revealed that the robber didn’t wear gloves despite being well covered up.

At 11.24 a.m., the robber entered the store with two female employees working, but no customers. &nbsp,

Employee Lawan Orna, 35, said the robber was a man about 160 centimetres tall. He wore a blue long-sleeved shirt, jeans, black-and-white Nike sneakers, a round hat and a face mask.

She claimed that the man approached the counter and instructed her and her coworker to sit down before taking the gold necklaces from the showcases and leaving. &nbsp,

The robber left the store on a motorcycle after grabbing the necklaces, walking away from the store, and then entering the mall.

The employees did not try to resist. According to Pol Lt. Gen Akradet, they did the right thing. &nbsp,

The investigation is continuing.

The robber was seen in the CCTV footage. (Photo supplied)

The robber, seen in CCTV footage. ( Photo supplied )

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ERAM: US Air Force’s next-gen drone killer or big-time boondoggle? – Asia Times

The US Air Force is developing a low-cost cruise missile known as the Extended Range Attack Munition ( ERAM ), which could evolve into an air-launched counter-drone weapon, The War Zone reported. In the device war time, it’s unclear whether the tool will be a master of none or a jack-of-all-trades.

The ERAM program, launched to meet the needs of the Ukrainian military, explores various modular subsystems, including the Fixed Wing Air-Launched Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Ordnance ( FALCO ). The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Armament Directorate, based at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is overseeing the task.

The ERAM, presently in Phase 1 of creation, aims to create a 226-kilogram detail weapons with a range of up to 400 meters and the ability to work in GPS-degraded conditions.

The FALCO subsystem, intended for counter-unmanned aerial system (C-UAS ) roles, could be integrated into future ERAM variants. The US Air Force’s emphasis on more reasonably priced air-to-air capabilities comes from the need to combat drones and hypersonic cruise missiles in the modern war era. &nbsp,

The ERAM’s ability as an air-to-air fighter with a 400-kilometer range may provide a major advantage, particularly against less responsive targets. With the corresponding upgrades, it could be an ideal loitering munition for aerial anti-access/area denial ( A2/AD ) against drones and cruise missiles.

This development coincides with US military initiatives to promote faster production of new weapons and address issues about supplies of ammunition, especially given the Red Sea procedures against Houthis and keeping Ukraine engaged in Russian combat. Both war have demonstrated a pressing need for affordable, mass-produced ships to stop drone and missile concentration attacks. &nbsp,

As an air-to-air weapons with the FALCO structure, the ERAM may provide a cost-effective option for countering robots and slow-moving airborne threats. The 2023 shootdown of an alleged Chinese spy bubble over the US illustrates that have, as using a US$ 472, 000 AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air weapon against such goals is financially unstable.

The ERAM’s expanded selection of 400 meters also gives it an edge over traditional air-to-air weapons. For instance, the AIM-9X has a range of more than 16 kilometers while the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile ( AMRAAM ) has an estimated maximum range of 55 kilometers.

But, as the ERAM was originally designed as an air-to-ground weapons, its success may be limited against fast-moving drones with ambiguous capabilities and cunning systems.

One such instance is China’s WZ-8 air-launched helicopter. Launched from an H-6M proper fighter, the WZ-8 may sail 48, 000 feet at Mach 6. Probably designed to track US ship battlegroups, the WZ-8 provides a tough target to hit.

Additionally, China’s GJ-11 Sharp Sword cunning aircraft is a flying-wing style similar to the US B-2 Spirit and B-21 Raider stealth bombers, enabling it to slide past air defenses and attack corporate targets with air-to-surface missiles or bright bombs.

These developments highlight the ERAM-designed drone threats’ increasing sophistication.

However, ERAM’s reliance on networked kill webs for targeting is a potential vulnerability. The War Zone report notes that these kill webs rely on a variety of outside-the-box data sources for guidance, which raises questions about interoperability and susceptibility to electronic warfare.

The US could conceivably strike various targets with a single munition type, simplifying production and logistics while reducing the need for multiple specialized weapons because the ERAM could be modified to attack air, sea, and land targets.

Seth Jones for the Center for Strategic and International Studies ( CSIS ) writes that the high cost and lengthy production times for some US missiles, such as those for the US’s two-year Tomahawk Block V and the US’s$ 3.2 million Patriot PAC-3, raise questions about the ability of the US defense industry base to support the prodigious need for precision-guided munitions in a war against a near-peer adversary. This situation makes a low-cost, mass-production solution such as ERAM necessary.

ERAM’s multi-role design may lead to trade-offs, making it a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none. A missile that is too slow to penetrate contemporary air defense systems due to the design’s lack of maneuverability to hit maneuvering targets. Its warhead may also be too small to destroy large or fortified targets, and its range may be too limited for stand-off attacks on enemy A2/AD systems.

Along with other similar projects like the US Navy’s Multi-Mission Affordable Capacity Effector ( MACE), the introduction of yet another low-cost, multipurpose weapon project like ERAM risks diverting US attention and funding from the development of more capable weapons that are essential for a conflict with a close-knit adversary.

Such weapons include the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile ( LRASM), Maritime Strike Tomahawk ( MST ), and Naval Strike Missile ( NSM) to replace the Cold War-era Harpoon. These would be critical in a potential conflict with China, which already has the world’s largest navy in terms of ship numbers, with over 370 ships and submarines and 140 major surface combatants, as per the US Department of Defense’s 2024 China Military Power report.

Dmitry Filipoff mentions in a February 2023 article for the Center for International Maritime Security ( CIMSEC ) that the ranges of the LRASM, MST, and NSM, at 563, 1, 600, and 185 kilometers respectively, trump those of the Harpoon, at only 128 kilometers for the most common variants.

Filipoff points out that the LRASM and NSM’s low procurement rate and lack of suitable launch platforms, the NSM’s short range and small warhead in comparison to the LRASM and MST, the limited MST kits, and the slow transition to the MST configuration could hinder US firepower in a near-peer conflict with China.

Moreover, the LRASM, MST and NSM are subsonic missiles, which may be limited in effectiveness against China’s newer air defense systems, such as the HQ-9B, designed to shoot down such threats. Due to these restrictions, it is necessary for the US to expand its hypersonic weapons arsenal.

The US needs to compete with China and Russia in the field of hypersonic weapons. A hypersonic weapon has not yet been used in active service by the US. In contrast, Russia has used the Kinzhal and Tsirkon hypersonic weapons in the ongoing Ukraine war while China has fielded the DF-17 hypersonic missile to attack US carrier battlegroups and Pacific bases since 2019.

While the ERAM promises versatility and cost-effectiveness, its success hinges on whether it can deliver lethal precision or become another overextended, underwhelming multi-role missile.

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More Singapore residents want the government to be more involved in race, religious issues: IPS survey

Singapore people are more likely to want the government to take more ownership of racial and religious problems, according to results from a study conducted by&nbsp, the Institute of Policy Studies ( IPS) next year.

The IPS report, which was released on Tuesday ( Feb 4), claimed “near unanimous agreement” from 93.9 percent of respondents that the government had worked hard to improve racial and religious harmony.

Titled Faultlines in Singapore: Perceptions and control with a emphasis on race and religion, the statement is based on the next generation of a poll on competition, religion and language. Similar studies were completed in 2013 and 2018.

According to IPS, the most recent survey was conducted from April to August of last year and involved a nationally representative example of 4, 000 Singapore people.

Respondents were asked a range of questions, including about government involvement in five faultlines -&nbsp, race, religion, immigration, socioeconomic status and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ( LGBT ) concerns- and consequences of mismanaging such issues.

In 2018, 27.3 percent of respondents wished that the state would be more involved in racial problems. That number increased to 30.5 per cent next year.

For religious problems, 23.2 per cent of respondents in 2018 wanted the government to be more concerned. Also, the number increased to 28.4 per cent next month.

In both 2018 and 2024, around two-thirds of respondents believed the president’s involvement was enough.

The proportion of respondents who thought the level of government participation was ample rose from 2018 to 2024 in terms of social standing and immigration issues.

There was a similar fall in those who argued for greater government role. In 2018, 45.3 per share felt the state should be more concerned in social distinctions, compared with 38 per cent of respondents in 2024. For emigration, the figure dropped from 47.1 per share to 38.2 per cent.

For LGBT problems, 33.2 per cent want the government to be more concerned, down from 39.1 per share in 2018.

IPS and&nbsp, non-profit entity OnePeople. A research on racial and religious cooperation was released on Monday by SRG.

According to IPS, the study revealed that there was a powerful backer for legislation outcomes that would promote racial harmony. ” In particular, over nine in 10 respondents ( in 2018 and 2024 ) felt that it is important to have a racial mix in each housing estate and to provide culturally sensitive help to the less well-off in different communities”.

Additionally, more than 80 % of respondents said it is crucial for immigration policy to keep the population’s cultural makeup.

Respondents were also asked for their views on the&nbsp, Chinese-Malay-Indian-Others ( CMIO ) model in Singapore, and 44.9 per cent said in 2024 that it should be kept, up from 34.5 per cent in 2018.

Only 5.9 per share of last year’s respondents wanted it to be removed, while 24.8 per cent said the categories may be expanded. More than 20 % of respondents said they were unsure what should be done with the CMIO type.

CONSEQUENCES OF Misuse FAULTLINES

A majority of Singaporeans believe that failing to properly handle problems involving race and religion may have serious consequences.

About eight in 10 respondents believe there are” major societal effects” if issues related to race, church, immigration, social standing and Transgender concerns are mishandled, IPS said.

The questionnaire asked respondents whether the improper handling of these troubles would have no effects or whether it would possess such negative effects as:

  1. Fear or trust among areas
  2. Polarisation
  3. Anger against certain neighborhoods
  4. diminished sense of belonging or nationwide identity
  5. Authorities believe level dropping
  6. Violence

With 49 % and 48 % of respondents believing that anger would be a result, they were seen to be most likely to cause anger against specific areas if handled incorrectly.

Around one-third of responders also claimed that handling racial and religious issues could lead to crime.

For immigration, social standing and Transgender problems, around 40 per cent of respondents said indignation would be a result if mismanaged, while fewer than 20 per cent said it could lead to crime.

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Policeman’s pickup bombed, vehicle burnt in deep South

The black Toyota pickup (centre) was damaged by the bomb explosion at Sri Sakhon police station in Sri Sakhon district, Narathiwat, on Tuesday morning. (Photo supplied)
The black Toyota pickup (centre ) was damaged by the bomb blast at Sri Sakhon police station in Sri Sakhon city, Narathiwat, on Tuesday night. ( Photo supplied )

In separate incidents this southern frontier province on Tuesday night, a small bomb planted inside a policeman’s delivery vehicle exploded and a car was destroyed by fire.

At the Sri Sakhon police place in the city of Sri Sakhon, the dark Toyota pick was parked. Around 9o’clock, the violent detonated.

The trailer belonged to a police officer. No one was in the vicinity of the car at the time, and no one had reported any accidents. The exploding was planted at&nbsp, the back of the vehicle. &nbsp,

Authorities thought the bomb was detonated by a clock. &nbsp,

Another car went up in flames in Yi Ngo city about 9.20am in front of a military warrior center. The cause of the fire was still being investigated.

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Hundreds of arrests, gambling den busted in Nakhon Nayok.

Some of the cash and gambling chips worth over 3 million baht seized during the raid on a major gambling den in Nakhon Nayok's Ongkharak district late on Monday night. (Photo: Department of Provincial Administration (DOPA)’s law enforcement centre)
Some of the over$ 3 million worth of gambling chips and funds were recovered late on Monday night during the attack on a significant gaming site in Nakhon Nayok’s Ongkharak district. ( Photo: Department of Provincial Administration ( DOPA )’s law enforcement centre )

More than 200 gamblers and bookmakers were detained and chips and money value about 3 million baht were found during a raid by municipal law enforcement on Monday night in the Ongkharak city of Nakhon Nayok.

A 60-strong group of municipal officials raided the betting lair, located in a clean paddy field, about 10.30pm.

Upon entering the premises, the crew found and detained 218 players and employees. Income amounting to 560, 570 ringgit and gaming chips for 2.4 million ringgit, about 3 million ringgit in full, were seized, along with gambling machines. Fifty cars were impoundced.

All arrested people were taken to the police station in Ongkharak for constitutional actions.

The procedure came after complaints were made to the Interior Ministry’s Damrongtham Center and the Nakhon Nayok Damrongtham Centre about a significant gaming den being run it frequently.

Anutin Charnvirakul, the interior minister, set up the assault.

Officials seize gambling chips and cash following the gambling den raid in Nakhon Nayok. (Photo: Department of Provincial Administration (DOPA)’s law enforcement centre)

During the attack at the gaming den in Nakhon Nayok, officials seize gambling chips and money. ( Photo: Department of Provincial Administration law enforcement centre )

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MOE takes serious view of bullying or violence, but vigilantism can complicate situation: Chan Chun Sing

2023 Event

The family of a student who committed suicide at Admiralty Secondary School in 2023 took to Facebook to speak out against bullying after the alleged abuse affair became public online. &nbsp,

Addressing the affair on Tuesday, Mr Chan reiterated MOE’s sympathies, and stressed that the factors and possible causes for deaths are difficult. &nbsp,

He continued, MOE usually does not make any such revelations people out of value for the family’s privacy. &nbsp,

” However, this frequently leaves our school officials and teachers vulnerable to misinterpretation, which can lead to online abuse and misuse of our professors and employees while they continue to exercise caution and responsiveness to the families,” said Mr. Chan. &nbsp,

I want to inform members of the house that the class went above and beyond to help this scholar when she was having personal difficulties because this particular person’s situation has now been made known to the public.

When the class learned that the student was “going through some compassion problems,” it began to help the conflicting students work through their differences and come to terms with them.

A group, comprising experienced school staff and the school advisor, counselled her and facilitated therapeutic discussions among the colleagues, said the education minister. &nbsp,

The student faced additional difficulties after the event, and the class continued to offer assistance and assistance over the course of several months, according to Mr. Chan, adding that the school also collaborated with and supported the child’s household. &nbsp,

The biased claims made at Admiralty Secondary do not accurately reflect the situation. He continued,” They do not do justice to the work the school made to assist the student and her family in times of have.” &nbsp,

The result was not something that any of us wanted to see occur. However, it should not be doubted that the school’s intention and efforts to assist the child and the family in their search for a mate should be respected.

Parents should be assured that teachers are impartially guarding the interests of all the children, according to Mr. Chan, even though a small number of parents may believe that the colleges have not done enough to solve their grievances. &nbsp,

It is important to keep in mind that it is one factor for kids to fight and argue. Adult jumping in, taking sides, aggravating the conflict, and preventing us from guiding our children toward healing and rehabilitation is quite another,” he continued.

In the subsequent incidents, college leaders were flamed online, the class was badly represented and the efforts to support all disturbed students were left unspoken and unrecognized, said the education secretary. &nbsp,

Kids are their family’s role models, he added. &nbsp,

” If we act like bullies, online or offline, they will also. Threatening, doxxing and being rude to other children and teachers are not actions that make our kids better” .&nbsp,

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