Nearly half a million spoiled ballots in Cambodia election: Poll body
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s election commission said on Tuesday (Aug 1) that nearly half a million ballots were spoiled in the national election last month, which critics have called a sham as all opposition parties were barred from contesting. Having ruled for nearly 40 years, Prime Minister Hun Sen will handContinue Reading
Srettha declares he won’t touch S112
Lese majeste law safe if I’m prime minister, he says
PUBLISHED : 1 Aug 2023 at 17:36
Pheu Thai prime ministerial candidate Srettha Thavisin declared on Tuesday he would not seek to abolish or amend Section 112 of the Criminal Code, the lese majeste law, if the parliament approves his nomination as prime minister.
“If the Pheu Thai Party nominates me during the next round of parliamentary voting to select the prime minister, there will certainly be no amending of Section 112,” he said.
“Pheu Thai has made it clear that the law will not be amended or abolished. If we want to see the country move forward and a new government successfully set up, the Section 112 issue must be set aside.
“Today, the issues of the economy and the people’s livelihoods are most important. What we have to do first is to make sure the people have enough to eat and that the economy improves,” he said.
Mr Srettha said this after some senators expressed doubts about his position on Section 112. The senators alleged Mr Srettha had said Section 112 should be amended during an interview in the lead-up to the May 14 general election. They said they would not support Mr Srettha if he were nominated for prime minister unless he clearly and satisfactorily explained his stand on the issue.
Parliament President Wan Muhamad Noor Matha has tentatively set Aug 4 for parliament to again meet in joint session to vote on the nomination of a prime minister.
Linthiporn Warinvacharoj, a Pheu Thai list MP and acting party spokeswoman, said Mr Srettha had addressed the matter in an interview on July 20, after the Move Forward Party’s prime ministerial candidate Pita Limjaroenrat failed to get parliamentary approval, mainly because of his party’s firm stand on amending Section 112.
The interview video had been posted on social media, she said.
“In the interview, Mr Srettha said clearly the issue must be handled properly during the next parliamentary vote for prime minister. He admitted Section 112 is the main stumbling block. He said if Pheu Thai is given a chance to nominate a candidate for the position, the party must not touch Section 112 or it would not get support from the Senate and many other political parties,” Ms Linthiporn said.
Sources said the Pheu Thai Party would issue a statement reiterating its standpoint of not amending or abolishing Section 112.
A source close of Mr Srettha said the property tycoon never had it in mind to amend or do away with Section 112. During the election campaign, when pressed for an answer Mr Srettha had opted for a neutral stance, saying the lese majeste law could be amended if the parliament or society saw it as necessary and this could be done through the normal parliamentary process, he said.
Interest from Indian nurses to work in Singapore amid manpower shortage here
DEMAND FROM SINGAPORE
Dynamic Health Staff director Arun Kumar Ojha said nurses who choose to relocate to Singapore will receive a housing allowance of up to S$500 (US$375) a month, gratuity, and joining bonuses from the institutions they join.
The perks are one of the reasons why it has seen more Indian nurses interested in moving to Singapore recently. This interest is also matched by rising demand from Singapore.
There is “a lot of demand” from the private and public sectors in Singapore, said Mr Ojha, adding that the Ministry of Health Holdings in particular admitted a large number of candidates to the pre-registration process. The process means that nurses are exempted from the Singapore Nursing Board exam.
There is demand from healthcare institutions like National Kidney Foundation and nursing homes, he said.
Foreign nurses must adhere to criteria set by the Singapore Nursing Board and undergo supervised work stints in Singapore before they can be granted local registration.
“We work really closely with a lot of universities and colleges to amend and modify the curriculum to ensure students who are graduating as healthcare workers actually have the requirements that foreign employers want,” said Mr Varun Khosla, chairman at the employment agency.
The agency is set to prepare more than 100 nurses for the next recruitment drive in September.
Of the close to 4,000 new nurses expected to be onboarded this year, there will be a higher proportion of foreign to local nurses – with a ratio of about 60:40. This will make up for the slowdown in foreign nurse recruitment due to the COVID-19 border restrictions, Singapore’s Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said last year.
Even as Singapore ramps up foreign recruitment of nurses, the “large majority” of its nursing workforce will continue to comprise locals from nursing school intakes and mid-career training programmes, Mr Ong added.
Water parades and popsicles: Nursing homes find cool ways to fan off warm weather
The social enterprise is also considering using cool paint for its building façades, which is capable of lowering the temperature inside by two degrees Celsius.
While the heat-reflective coat is more expensive than normal paint, the social enterprise said the benefits outweigh the cost.
“We are exploring more long-term and sustainable solutions,” said NTUC Health’s head of clinical services and residential care Goh Siew Hor.
“Both the cool paint and thermal film can potentially help to lower ambient temperature around the building and thus reduce the load on our air conditioners and also improve the thermal comfort for those in the building.”
EFFORTS TO KEEP COOL
Homes that are unable to make big changes to their infrastructure said they are making do with existing measures such as additional standing fans and cooling pads.
Nurses are also taking extra measures to monitor room temperatures and residents’ vital signs, with a lookout for heat-related conditions including giddiness, nausea, fatigue or rashes.
At the Thye Hua Kwan Nursing Home, its sensory room for residents with dementia is also being used as a makeshift heat shelter. It is one of the few rooms in the home with air-conditioning.
School wrecked by fireworks blast closed for repairs
Water in affected area still not fit for consumption, say health officials
PUBLISHED : 1 Aug 2023 at 16:49
NARATHIWAT: A school was among the dozens of buildings heavily damaged by Saturday’s huge fireworks explosion in Sungai Kolok and has been closed for two weeks for repairs.
Soraya Asae, the director of Ban Muno School, said the powerful blast damaged five school buildings and seven houses for teachers. The ceilings of the classrooms collapsed and windows were shattered. Structural damage was also found in the teachers’ housing. The total damage was estimated at 3 million baht, she said.
The school is located about 300 metres from the warehouse where at least a tonne of illegally stored fireworks blew up during a welding mishap on Saturday afternoon, killing 12 people, injuring 121 and damaging 292 buildings in the village of Muno near the Malaysian border.
Ms Soraya said the school would be closed for two weeks, with classes suspended starting from Thursday. Debris, scrap metal, broken glass and other materials scattered around the site will be removed and the damaged buildings and equipment will undergo repairs.
She said the incident happened so suddenly and unexpectedly, there was no time for the school to properly cope with it.
The school director expressed her thanks to Supot Maneeratanachot, director of the Area 2 primary education office, for giving bags of survival gear and some money to the teachers and students as a morale booster.
She said the school had opened a bank account to take donations to be used for the repairs.
Dr Chaiwat Pattanapisalsak, director of the Narathiwat public health office, said teams from the office were visiting residents affected by the explosion.
Dozens of people left homeless by the blast have been staying at a temporary shelter set up on the sports field of the Muno Subdistrict Administrative Organisation.
Health officials have found that the air quality within a 500-metre radius of the explosion site was still good, but the water was not suitable for use or consumption, said Dr Chaiwat.
Police have summoned the owner of the warehouse for questioning, but it remained unclear when he would come in, as he was reportedly on holiday with his family.
Thaksin will return by private jet, says old friend
PUBLISHED : 1 Aug 2023 at 16:23
Thaksin Shinawatra will return on a private jet, landing at Don Mueang airport, according to a senior member of the Chartthaipattana Party and close friend who recently visited the former prime minister.
Chartthaipattana secretary-general Praphat Phothasuthon made his prediction after returning from meeting Thaksin in Hong Kong, where the political fugitive celebrated his 74th birthday last week.
Mr Praphat, who is also 74, said he and Thaksin were old friends and he always went to see him on his birthday, wherever he was.
Mr Praphat quoted Thaksin as saying that he would return to Thailand on a private jet that would land at Don Mueang airport. He would then be taken to a court and was willing to go to jail if so required, according to Mr Praphat, who is also caretaker deputy agriculture minister. He did not say when Thaksin would return.
The Chartthaipattana secretary-general denied that he and Thaksin discussed any special political agreement during their meeting in Hong Kong. Mr Praphat pointed out that Chartthaipattana and Pheu Thai had enjoyed close ties for a long time.
The Pheu Thai Party is trying to form the new government in the wake of the May 14 general election. It came second with 141 House votes. The Move Forward Party won 151 House seats but failed to win parliament approval when it nominated its leader Pita Limjaroenrat for prime minister of July 13.
Thaksin’s daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra is one of Pheu Thai’s three candidates for prime minister. She recently said Thaksin would return at Don Mueang airport on Aug 10.
Thaksin was overthrown by a military coup on Sept 19, 2006, while he was overseas. He has since lived in self-exile, based in Dubai, except for a brief visit to Thailand in 2008.
During his absence, the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions sentenced him to a total of 12 years imprisonment in four cases.
In the first case, the court found him guilty of abuse of power in his then-wife Khunying Potjaman’s purchase of state-owned land in Ratchadapisek area for less than the market value. In October 2008, he was sentenced to two years in prison. The 10-year statute of limitations on the court ruling expired in October 2018.
In the second case, Thaksin was sentenced to two years in prison after he was found guilty of malfeasance in a case concerning a two- and three-digit lottery.
In the third case, Thaksin was given three years in prison for abusing his position by authorising loans totaling 4 billion baht to Myanmar by the Export-Import Bank of Thailand. The loans were used to buy equipment from a telecom firm owned by his family.
In the fourth case, the former prime minister was sentenced to five years in prison when the court found him guilty of using nominees to hold shares in Shin Corp. The law prohibits any political office holder from owning shares in a telecommunications company.
The statute of limitations for the court decisions in the second, third and fourth cases has not expired.
Chartthaipattana Party secretary-general Praphat Phothasuton. (File photo)
Man fractured skulls of baby daughter and toddler son; instigated wife to lie to police
SINGAPORE: A man physically abused his two-month-old daughter by shaking her until she fractured her skull and ribs, but managed to keep the crimes hidden by instigating his wife to lie to the police.
He repeated the violence against his son who was born a few years later, shoving the two-year-old boy until he vomited and developed seizures.
The 34-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the victims’ identities, was sentenced to 10 years and four weeks’ jail along with 12 strokes of the cane on Tuesday (Aug 1).
He pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntarily causing grievous hurt and one charge of lying to the police. Another eight charges were considered in sentencing.
The court heard that the man and his 28-year-old wife have several children together.
In May 2018, the couple were home when their two-month-old daughter began crying.
With his wife in the shower, the man picked the baby up and began rocking her up and down such that her head was wobbling, shaking her forcefully in a manner the prosecution likened to a “baby spring”.
Frustrated with her cries, he rocked her faster the louder she cried.
When the man’s wife came out of the shower, she immediately took the child from her husband.
The baby cried throughout the night and her parents took her to hospital the next day.
Doctors found bleeding on the surface of her brain, a skull fracture, two fractured ribs and bleeding in her eyes.
The injuries were found to be non-accidental, with evidence of shaken baby syndrome. The child was hospitalised for 33 days.
The police were called in and took statements from the offender, who claimed he did not know how the baby fractured her skull. He claimed he had noticed a bump on his daughter’s head a few days before, and thought she had gotten it from a bed bug or mosquito bite.
He also attributed the skull and rib fractures to an older child, whom he said was “very active” and might have jumped on the victim.
CHILDREN PLACED IN FOSTER CARE
In August that year, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) intervened and placed the baby in foster care.
They also placed the offender’s son in foster care in September 2019, soon after he was born, but allowed both children to stay with their parents over weekends.
The man then turned violent towards his son, who was two years old in the latter half of 2021.
The young boy had expressed reluctance to visit his parents’ flat.
On Sep 20, 2021, when a child protection coordinator from MSF took the boy to the offender’s flat for his usual weekend homestay, the boy did not want to enter.
His mother took videos of him crying or walking away from the flat when he was supposed to stay over, and sent them to her husband, before carrying the boy in.
When the offender got home that evening, he began watching the videos while alone with his son in the living room.
ANGERED AT TODDLER SON
He grew angry, and asked the boy why he did not want to enter the flat.
When the toddler did not reply, the man got even angrier. He shoved his son’s head multiple times, causing the boy to fall sideways repeatedly.
The boy finally shook his head before walking away unsteadily. The offender saw that his son appeared drowsy, and asked him to lie down on a mat.
The boy vomited twice and his father took him to the toilet to clean him up, and noticed that the child appeared weak.
The toddler later developed seizures and his father administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him.
The man and his wife eventually took the boy to KKH’s Children’s Emergency department. A CT scan revealed bleeding in the boy’s skull, with a fracture of the bone.
The boy underwent surgery that day and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. He stayed in hospital for 24 days.
His father was arrested and assessed at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), which found that he had no mental illness.
He however “lacked insight into his behaviour and actions” and seemed to have “a poor understanding of a child’s cognitive maturity and emotional needs”, an IMH report said.
He also had “a tendency to minimise his actions” and did not seem to be aware of appropriate disciplinary methods for children.
The report stated that the man required further guidance in developing his parenting skills, or there would be a continued risk of violence towards his wife and young children.
The prosecution called for jail of between 10 years and four weeks, and 11 years and six weeks, along with 12 strokes of the cane.
They said the court must send a clear message that the law will not tolerate “parents who inflict gratuitous violence against their children”.
Prosecutors said the offender had repeatedly inflicted violence on his biological children, who were innocent and blameless.
“He even lied to the police and instigated his wife to do the same to cover up his actions,” said the prosecutors.
The man’s wife does not currently face any charges.
Beijing floods: Deadly rains batter China capital as new storm looms
ReutersAt least 11 people have died and 13 others are missing in torrential rains in Beijing as China braces for the third typhoon in as many weeks.
The remnants of last week’s super storm Doksuri flooded Beijing for the fourth straight day on Tuesday even as another typhoon approached the eastern coast.
More than 50,000 people in the city have been evacuated so far, according to state media.
The flooding has hit several districts, disrupting train services and traffic.
At least a dozen people were killed in the Philippines and Taiwan as Doksuri passed through at the end of last week on its way to China.
Heavy rains are likely to persist this week, and flooding could worsen in northern regions around Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province, the emergency management ministry has warned.
At least nine people have died in Hebei, officials say.
Relentless rain over the weekend broke daily precipitation records at 14 weather stations in Beijing and the northern provinces of Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong.
Chinese authorities have not announced an official toll of victims or reported how many are missing outside the capital city.
Military helicopters were deployed in the early hours of Tuesday to deliver emergency food supplies and ponchos to people stranded in and around a train station in the hard-hit Mentougou district in western Beijing, CCTV reports.
Around 150,000 households in the district are reported to be without running water.
Nearly 400 flights on Tuesday were cancelled and hundreds delayed at Beijing’s two airports, according to flight tracker app Flight Master.
Footage shared online by residents in the surrounding Hebei province show swathes of land engulfed by floods.
Residents in several neighbourhoods in Hebei’s Zhouzhou county have reportedly been trapped, some for almost 24 hours, as rescue workers are unable to reach them.
On Monday, state television published a clip of the dramatic rescue of a man clinging to an overturned car caught in raging floodwaters in Wu’an city, also in Hebei. The man and his car were pinwheeling down a flooded river before he was lifted to safety by a helicopter.
Like many parts of the world, China has been seeing extreme heat and rain in recent weeks, which some scientists have linked to climate change.
Doksuri made landfall in China’s south-east Fujian province on Friday, triggering landslides and floods before moving north towards the capital. Hundreds of thousands of Fujian residents were evacuated.
Doksuri, which came a week after typhoon Talim, also led to mass closures of schools and workplaces across the province.
China’s Meteorological Bureau said Beijing saw a deluge of about 170.9mm (6.7in) between Saturday night and noon on Monday, the equivalent of the average rainfall for the entire month of July.
There is little relief with typhoon Khanun on the horizon. It is expected to enter the East China Sea on Wednesday before moving to China’s coastal provinces, Zhejiang and Fujian.
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Barbie movie: Warner Bros sorry for replying to atomic bomb memes
Warner BrosWarner Bros has apologised after an official Barbie Movie account replied to Barbenheimer memes featuring atom bomb images.
Some images showed Margot Robbie with a mushroom cloud hairstyle. The official Barbie movie account replied: “This Ken is a stylist”.
Barbie is scheduled to be released on 11 August in Japan – five days after the 78th anniversary of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima.
#NoBarbenheimer has been trending.
Other meme images that enraged Japanese social media users include one showing Cillian Murphy, who played Robert Oppenheimer – known as the “father of the atomic bomb”, carrying Ms Robbie on his shoulder through a burning city. The Barbie movie official account replied: “It’s going to be a summer to be remembered”.
In a statement posted on Warner Bros Japan’s own Barbie account, the firm said it was “extremely regrettable that the official account of the American headquarters for the movie ‘Barbie’ reacted to the social media postings of ‘Barbenheimer’ fans.”
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A day later, its US headquarters told the BBC: “Warner Bros regrets its recent insensitive social media engagement. The studio offers a sincere apology.”
Twitter, which has recently rebranded to X, has since added community notes to original posts to highlight the historical context of the atomic bomb attacks on Japan.
The recorded death tolls are estimates, but it is thought that about 140,000 of Hiroshima’s 350,000 population were killed in the blast on 6 August 1945. At least 74,000 people died when Nagasaki was bombed three days later.
The radiation released by the bombs caused thousands more people to die from radiation sickness in the years that followed.
One social media user posted: “My grandfather was in Hiroshima until a few days before the atomic bomb was dropped. Among those who died under that mushroom cloud were many children who were at the age of playing with Barbie dolls.”
A spokesperson for the city of Hiroshima told the BBC that 78 years on, it will “continue working to spread the knowledge and understandings of the physical and psychological impact of nuclear bombs as well as a-bomb survivors’ hope for nuclear disarmament”.
The distributor of Oppenheimer has not yet announced a release date for the film in Japan.
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9 August 2020
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China wants to mobilise entire nation in counter-espionage
BEIJING: China should encourage its citizens to join counter-espionage work, including creating channels for individuals to report suspicious activity as well as commending and rewarding them, the state security ministry said on Tuesday (Aug 1). A system that makes it “normal” for the masses to participate in counter-espionage must beContinue Reading