MULTAN: A Pakistani woman who gave her husband poisoned milk ended up killing him and 12 of his family when the tainted liquid was turned into a yoghurt drink and served to him and his relatives, police said.The woman, who was forced by her family into an arranged marriage in September, has been arrested and charged with murder along with her alleged lover, senior police official Owais Ahmad told reporters in central Pakistan’s Muzaffargarh district on Monday.
Police said Asiya Bibi mixed poison into her husband’s milk last week but he initially failed to drink it and it was instead blended into a batch of yoghurt-based lassi and served to the man’s family.
Thirteen people have so far died, including the husband, while a further 14 have been hospitalised, Ahmad said.
“Police have arrested Asiya Bibi, a man and his aunt for being accomplices and charged them with murder,” Ahmad said.
He said the man was allegedly Bibi’s lover and that his aunt helped hatch the murder plot.
Forced and under-age marriages are common in deeply conservative Pakistan, particularly in rural and impoverished regions, where women have fought for their rights for decades.
An unlikely meeting of two individuals at a Boracay dragon boat event in May 2015 finally culminated in a union between Stomper Jarrick and his fiancée, Sophie, in Singapore last Saturday (Oct 28). The joyous event took place at at kult kafé, which is located along Upper Wilkie Road.
In a telephone interview, Jarrick told Stomp how the two of them had met as participants in the dragon boat event.
Jarrick
said that before meeting Sophie, he had been single for ‘so long and
was so old’, that his mother thought that he was not interested in the
opposite sex.After getting to know each other, Jarrick continued dating Sophie when the two returned to Singapore after the event.That was when Jarrick popped the question, asking her if he could move in with her.To his surprise, she was agreeable to his request.
Said
Jarrick: "I still do not know what came over me I just asked her if I
could move my things in. I didn’t even pack for it, so I had to return
home for more things."According to Jarrick, Sophie ‘made the
first move’ during their courtship, when she offered him antiseptic
cream after he brushed against a coconut tree and got injured in
Boracay.
However, according to her, it was he who made the first
move, going up to her room to ask her if she wanted to have dinner with
him and his friends. Although the stories are clearly different, both ended the same way -- a happily ever after for the couple.Let’s wish this couple a blissful marriage ahead!
SINGAPORE: Messaging app Whatsapp has launched
a new feature that lets users delete messages that were sent out -
within a 7-minute window.In the past, the "delete message"
function would only remove the message from the sender's phone, while
the recipients of the message would still be able to see it.Now with the "delete for everyone" option, the message will be expunged for sender and recipient(s).But not all traces of the message will be gone as it will be replaced with "This message was deleted".
Another
important caveat is that users can only delete messages for everyone
for up to seven minutes after the message was sent.
While the feature reportedly went live four days ago, it appeared unavailable in Singapore.
But
as of Monday, at least some users in Singapore have got the latest
update, which Whatsapp said would work only if both the message sender
and recipient are using the latest version of the messaging app.
According to the Whatsapp website, to delete messages for everyone:
Open WhatsApp and go to the chat containing the message you wish to delete.
Tap and hold the message. Optionally, tap more messages to delete multiple messages at once.
Tap Delete (trashcan icon) at the top of the screen > Delete for everyone.
A netizen went on Facebook to request for help to share her story.
She lost her handphone after leaving it behind at a bubble tea stall.After placing her order, and making payment for the drink, she accidentally left phone on the counter and walked away.A lady who was behind her in the queue apparently proceeded to place her
order and made payment. In the CCTV footage which the stall manager
shared with the phone owner, the lady was seen to make payment for her
drink and took the phone and placed it in her bag instead of informing
the phone owner.
Along with her handphone, she also lost her Identity Card, debit cards and EZ-link card.
The
phone owner requests for help to report the lady to the police if any
handphone shop notice the lady selling the said handphone with the
following IMEI number:
Three double-decker buses have crashed into the same taxi stand shelter opposite VivoCity in 2017.
The first two incidents earlier in the year involved Tower Transit buses.The latest third incident involved a SBS Transit bus.
Third incident
The latest incident occurred on Oct. 28 at around 7.10pm.
The impact shattered the upper deck windshield of the SBS Transit bus.
No injuries were reported.
The likely causes
In the July incident, the Tower Transit bus captain was reported to have mistaken the taxi stand shelter for the bus stop.
The regularity of such accidents occurring has been debated amongst public transport enthusiasts.
Members of the group pointed out that the taxi stand shelter is only
3.7m instead of the usual 4.5m height, that will allow double-decker
buses to easily pass under it.
There is also a tendency for the buses to swerve left to keep to the
left-most bus lane, due to the right lanes experiencing congestion with
vehicles lined up to turn right at the traffic light junction.
A Facebook user, Noh Koris,
recently shared videos of a man who had been caught allegedly molesting
and then trying to kidnap a seven-year-old girl in Malaysia. According
to Noh Koris, the incident reportedly happened near the Cheras Ria
apartments in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on October 23, at around 1.45pm. In one of the videos, the suspect was accused to having molested a girl while riding a red Honda EX5 motorcycle.
A man holding a stick could be seen in the second video, interrogating the suspect.
At a point, he raised the stick above his head, seemingly ready to hit him, although he stopped to listen to the girl. Noh Koris also emphasised that the suspect was not a resident of the apartment, reports The Coverage. In another video, police officers could be seen at the scene. According to the New Straits Times, the man was arrested for the alleged offences.
Another
netizen commented on Noh Koris’s post, adding that the man in the video
had violated his neighbour’s child and the family had lodged a police
report.However other netizens criticised the brutality of the resident’s behaviour. Said one Facebook user:“The police have already arrived, so why threaten to hit him?”
City
police Criminal Investigation Department chief Assistant Commissioner
Rusdi Mohd Isa said the offence was believed to have taken place in a
lift of the Cheras Ria Apartment.
Rusdi also added that the girl's father had lodged a police report, saying:
"He (the suspect) has been remanded seven days to facilitate investigations." source
Trinity was just nine when leukaemia took her
memory and ability to move or speak. Four years on she is healthy,
finished with her PSLE and dreams of being a beatboxing
singer-songwriter.
SINGAPORE: The first try fails, and so does
the second. She comes agonisingly close on the third, only to fall back
in her wheelchair. Perhaps weakened by the exertion, her fourth comes up
short too. But she quickly bounces back for attempt No.5: And stands,
teetering, leaning on her mother briefly before successfully swiveling
around and sitting down on her bed.This was young Trinity’s first
time transferring herself from wheelchair to bed - a milestone captured
on video in 2013, and symbolic of her wider battle against the blood
cancer known as acute lymphoid leukaemia.
Mere months
before, as a nine-year-old, she underwent three brain surgeries in the
space of 10 days to fix complications arising from chemotherapy. The
ordeal left her unable to talk or move; she was also robbed of other
senses and suffered memory loss.Fast forward to the
present and she is a healthy 13-year-old armed with a radiant smile,
ready laugh and positive glow about her. With her PSLE completed,
Trinity already has an eye on secondary school and beyond, to dreams of a
career as a singer-songwriter - who beatboxes to boot.
The
question of how she got here elicits a lengthy pause. “Before, I felt
like it was useless and pointless, that there was nothing I could do,
that there wasn’t a way,” she muses. “I eventually accepted my
condition, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t do something about it.”
“I just didn’t want to give up so easily.”This was young Trinity’s first
time transferring herself from wheelchair to bed - a milestone captured
on video in 2013, and symbolic of her wider battle against the blood
cancer known as acute lymphoid leukaemia.
Mere months
before, as a nine-year-old, she underwent three brain surgeries in the
space of 10 days to fix complications arising from chemotherapy. The
ordeal left her unable to talk or move; she was also robbed of other
senses and suffered memory loss.Fast forward to the
present and she is a healthy 13-year-old armed with a radiant smile,
ready laugh and positive glow about her. With her PSLE completed,
Trinity already has an eye on secondary school and beyond, to dreams of a
career as a singer-songwriter - who beatboxes to boot.The
question of how she got here elicits a lengthy pause. “Before, I felt
like it was useless and pointless, that there was nothing I could do,
that there wasn’t a way,” she muses. “I eventually accepted my
condition, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t do something about it.” “I just didn’t want to give up so easily.”
In the middle of the night, she'd start crying or shouting.
It all began with frequent fevers in early 2013, said Trinity’s father Govinda Rajan, 48.An
initial blood test came back normal, but during the June school
holidays Trinity grew noticeably weaker, prompting her parents to take
action.After a second blood test at the hospital, they
were informed by doctors that 90 per cent of their daughter’s body was
occupied by leukaemia cells.“Her lymph nodes and her
heart were swelling, making her chest area bigger - I thought she was
maturing early,” said Trinity’s mother Esther Melanie Dass, 44. “She
also had a 10cm cyst above her pancreas.”
“The doctor said it was a slightly higher-risk cancer, still curable, but they would have to start chemotherapy immediately.”
The following month of treatment
was a difficult time surmounted only by Trinity’s high tolerance for
pain, said both her parents.“When the doctor first poked
a lot of needles in my skin I cried very loudly. It was very painful,”
their daughter recounted. “But as time passed, I got used to it. I could
still feel the needles but I would just try to not think about the
pain.”She also remembers doctors “inserting a long
needle” in her spine, as part of a tri-monthly lumbar puncture procedure
to collect fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Then there was
the discomfort of a portacath device implanted near her heart, to
administer the chemotherapy.
Her eldest sister Tritassha,
17, sometimes stayed overnight to accompany Trinity. “It was really
scary because in the middle of the night, she’d start crying or
shouting. Sometimes it was nightmares, but other times it was because of
the horrible pain she felt in her body.”“But she’s a very determined girl and I think that’s why she recovered a lot.”Govinda agreed. “She’s very strong.”
The following month of treatment
was a difficult time surmounted only by Trinity’s high tolerance for
pain, said both her parents.“When the doctor first poked
a lot of needles in my skin I cried very loudly. It was very painful,”
their daughter recounted. “But as time passed, I got used to it. I could
still feel the needles but I would just try to not think about the
pain.”She also remembers doctors “inserting a long
needle” in her spine, as part of a tri-monthly lumbar puncture procedure
to collect fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Then there was
the discomfort of a portacath device implanted near her heart, to
administer the chemotherapy.
Her eldest sister Tritassha,
17, sometimes stayed overnight to accompany Trinity. “It was really
scary because in the middle of the night, she’d start crying or
shouting. Sometimes it was nightmares, but other times it was because of
the horrible pain she felt in her body.”“But she’s a very determined girl and I think that’s why she recovered a lot.”Govinda agreed. “She’s very strong.”
I was very, very scared.
Trinity would require all her hardiness for what was to come next.She
had been responding well in chemotherapy and after being discharged,
the family thought things were looking up - but a month later in August
she contracted a raging fever and was hospitalised again.While visiting her daughter Esther suddenly found Trinity unable to speak or move properly and quickly alerted the doctors.
It
turned out she had developed a major fungal infection, due to her
immune system being affected by the chemotherapy - and the infection had
already spread to her brain, causing severe bleeding.
“There was a 4cm blood clot in her brain,” said Esther.Trinity
immediately went through an emergency operation. Ten days later, after
exhibiting the same symptoms, she was taken in for a second surgery.
This still failed to stop the advanced clotting and she was rushed right
back into the theatre.
“The doctor told us the entire
left side of her brain was bleeding,” said Esther. “It was a life and
death situation. We had to sign a consent form - it was that critical.”Trinity
doesn’t remember much of the surgeries - except for the sadness before
each. “I cried because I was very, very scared, because my mum couldn’t
always hold on to me,” she said.But there was more to
fear. After the third operation, the neurosurgeon told Trinity’s parents
he had done his best to take out as many blood clots - but there were
consequences.“Basically, he said I wouldn’t be taking back a normal child,” said Esther.
The following month of treatment
was a difficult time surmounted only by Trinity’s high tolerance for
pain, said both her parents.“When the doctor first poked
a lot of needles in my skin I cried very loudly. It was very painful,”
their daughter recounted. “But as time passed, I got used to it. I could
still feel the needles but I would just try to not think about the
pain.”
She also remembers doctors “inserting a long
needle” in her spine, as part of a tri-monthly lumbar puncture procedure
to collect fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Then there was
the discomfort of a portacath device implanted near her heart, to
administer the chemotherapy.
Her eldest sister Tritassha,
17, sometimes stayed overnight to accompany Trinity. “It was really
scary because in the middle of the night, she’d start crying or
shouting. Sometimes it was nightmares, but other times it was because of
the horrible pain she felt in her body.”
“But she’s a very determined girl and I think that’s why she recovered a lot.”
Govinda agreed. “She’s very strong.”
I was very, very scared.
Trinity would require all her hardiness for what was to come next.She
had been responding well in chemotherapy and after being discharged,
the family thought things were looking up - but a month later in August
she contracted a raging fever and was hospitalised again.While visiting her daughter Esther suddenly found Trinity unable to speak or move properly and quickly alerted the doctors.
It
turned out she had developed a major fungal infection, due to her
immune system being affected by the chemotherapy - and the infection had
already spread to her brain, causing severe bleeding.
“There was a 4cm blood clot in her brain,” said Esther.
Trinity
immediately went through an emergency operation. Ten days later, after
exhibiting the same symptoms, she was taken in for a second surgery.
This still failed to stop the advanced clotting and she was rushed right
back into the theatre.
“The doctor told us the entire
left side of her brain was bleeding,” said Esther. “It was a life and
death situation. We had to sign a consent form - it was that critical.”Trinity
doesn’t remember much of the surgeries - except for the sadness before
each. “I cried because I was very, very scared, because my mum couldn’t
always hold on to me,” she said.
But there was more to
fear. After the third operation, the neurosurgeon told Trinity’s parents
he had done his best to take out as many blood clots - but there were
consequences.
“Basically, he said I wouldn’t be taking back a normal child,” said Esther.
We saw her broken.
Doctors
had to carve out a hole in Trinity’s skull and dig deep to remove the
clots, in the process touching major parts of her left brain, said
Esther.The result? “She couldn’t speak, couldn’t
remember our names, couldn’t remember her ABCs, there was totally no
movement on her right side, she lost her senses, and it took a while for
her to respond when we spoke to her,” said Govinda.“We saw her broken, bedridden, at only nine going on 10…” his wife trailed off, holding back tears.
With
their daughter’s body not responding to food, doctors had to pump out
up to a litre of gastric juices every day, and were considering putting
her on tubes permanently.Trinity remembers this “very
frustrating” time. “I wanted to say the words, but I didn’t know why I
couldn’t say it out… I think my brain didn’t listen to me.”
But
the next year or so of Trinity’s “retraining”, as her father put it,
left even doctors amazed, said Esther. “What she went through… it wasn’t
expected for her to recover as soon as she did.”
Within
weeks Trinity slowly started to speak and recall her memory with the
help of family members and therapists patiently interacting with her.
“I still remember my mum started by teaching me three words: ‘I want to’, because I sometimes need this and that,” she laughed.Once,
when Trinity was just regaining her speech, she asked Esther if this
was happening to her because she was “naughty or mean, or not a good
girl”.
“I quickly brought her (two elder) sisters and
(younger) brother and they hugged her and kissed her and told her she
didn’t do anything wrong, this just happened and she was going to get
out of it,” said their mother.
Next thing we knew … She's running.
Then
there was the impaired mobility on her right side, which meant Trinity
had to switch master hands. “At first it felt really weird, but I slowly
taught myself to use my left.”After her discharge - two
months from admission - she was still wheelchair-bound and needed to be
carried around and bathed, but Trinity started telling herself she was
going to get up and walk, said Esther.
She would wheel
herself around the house using one leg, and use the window grille to
strengthen her limbs by repeatedly sitting and standing. These exercises
helped her eventually progress to a walking stick, but she still wasn’t
stable, her mother recalled.“Then the therapists started training her and next thing we knew, we threw away the stick and now she’s running.”
While
Esther credits her family for sticking together as well as the
Children’s Cancer Foundation for providing counselling, therapy and
academic assistance, above all she believes it was Trinity’s own
willpower which aided in her comeback.“She’s an amazing girl,” said the proud
mother. “Honestly, what we saw with our eyes… That was not something we
thought could get any better.”
“The doctor said a lot of
things about how she was going to be, but she didn’t just take that in
and say ‘I’m going to be like that’ - if she did, I don’t think she’d be
walking or running or talking or going back to school.”Added
Esther: “Every time I feel down or that I can’t do anything, I talk to
her, and I get lifted. Because I know (what) she’s gone through, and
she’s done it, and it motivates me.”
“We’ve learnt a lot of things from her,” said both father Govinda and eldest sister Tritassha.
I thought people wouldn’t talk to me.
After
finishing intensive chemotherapy in May 2015, Trinity could finally
install a titanium plate to fill the hole in her skull and the resulting
depression at the side of her head.
She also went back to her primary school
in January 2016, after a two-year absence. “She puts on her own bag,
carries her own stuff and goes to school on her own. She wants to do
things independently,” said Esther.Initially, Trinity
struggled to pass her exams. The Education Ministry helped by extending
hours for her oral and written papers, and after gradually getting back
in the groove she has not failed a test since.
Trinity
also had other doubts of the social sort. “I thought people wouldn’t
talk to me because of my condition. But there’s one girl, she accepts me
for who I am. She’s nice, she always helps me… This year, I have
another friend.”
Said Esther: “She’s just glad she’s back in school and not sitting in hospital. She treasures this a lot, and is so thankful.”
There
are still remnants of trying times past. Trinity sleeps in a hospital
bed at home, and she recently had a second, sudden onset of seizures.
Brain scans indicated improvement and she was discharged the same day -
but her family is well aware she is not yet at a 100 per cent.
Her right hand still cannot grip well
and there remains a slight drop foot on the same side, where she dons an
ankle brace when going out. But Trinity is, as always, optimistic.
“I
have no more difficulty walking about,” she said, with more than a hint
of resoluteness. “It’s just my hand. The last bit… it’s just my hand.”
This close to victory, all bets are on Trinity - the cancer survivor, the girl who doesn’t give up - to do something about it.
SINGAPORE: Two people were injured in a
multi-vehicle collision along the Tampines Expressway (TPE) on Thursday
(Oct 26) morning.The collision took place along the TPE towards Changi Airport before the Elias Road exit.The
Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) was alerted to the accident at
around 8.50am and dispatched an ambulance to the scene. Two people
suffered injuries and were taken to Changi General Hospital, SCDF said.Video
of the accident on Facebook page Roads.sg showed that the collision
involved at least two motorcycles and two cars, including a yellow
CityCab taxi.
Video
footage shows the taxi slowing down as a red Honda Vezel, unable to
brake in time, smashes into it. A motorcycle manages to swerve around
the two cars.Another motorcycle follows, but the rider loses his balance
as he brushes past the red car. A third motorcycle smashes into the back
of the red car and breaks apart. Motorcycle parts were sent flying onto
the road while the motorcyclist falls to one side.
SINGAPORE — An overemphasis on “credentialism”, or one’s academic
results and material achievements, is a “narrow way of judging success”
that could affect how well a country fares, said Finance Minister Heng
Swee Keat on Sunday (Oct 29).Harking back to his time in charge
of the Education portfolio, where he pushed the message of “every school
a good school”, Mr Heng said there was a range of qualities, including
values and skills, to determine who would be the best fit for a job.
“When I was in MOE (Ministry of Education), I studied many
education systems around the world, I made quite a number of visits ...
to see what people have done right, and what people have done wrong —
and I won’t name countries — but I noticed that the ones that had too
much emphasis on credentialism, whereby a person is just judged on paper
qualifications, ended up not being able to use the full talents of
their people,” he said.
Countries that take such a narrow
definition of success end up less successful “as a country”, he added,
because they get “fixated on the holy criteria for success”.Mr
Heng made these comments at a dialogue that rounded up his ministerial
community visit to the Moulmein-Cairnhill ward in Tanjong Pagar Group
Representation Constituency. It was his first ministerial community
visit since he became Finance Minister in 2015, after four years in
charge of the Education portfolio.Stress created by the paper
chase in Singapore’s education system has been something the Government
has been trying to address in recent years, including through changes to
the Primary School Leaving Examination scoring system announced last
year.
Mr Heng, who was responding to a presentation made by a
group of Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) students who highlighted the
need for holistic education to develop all-rounded leaders, identified
two groups of people who will be key in changing the definition of
success: Parents and employers.
“Unless employers value other
qualities, you find that everybody will just go for cookie-cutter, and
say, ‘How many As do you have?’, and they will be hiring people along
the same basis. So all those of you who are bosses of your own firms, or
in HR (human resources), I hope that you become part of the change
agent, and look at how we can make full use of the strengths of
individuals,” he said, addressing 180 residents who took part in the
dialogue.
Mr Heng also commented on another presentation made by a
group of residents, who asked how elitism can be removed from
workplaces. They suggested that one way might be to narrow income gaps,
citing that in other countries, income disparity between top earners and
low earners is much less.But Mr Heng cautioned that income
disparity is “something we need to be careful about”. If it is not
managed delicately, people can easily choose to pack up and go to
another country if they find a cap on their salaries.
He noted
that the issue is not overlooked by the Government, with income
redistribution done through targeted social policies, and a progressive
tax system.During the dialogue, the cost of healthcare was a concern raised by residents.Mr Heng said technological advances have led to healthcare costs increasing, but at the same time, patients are benefitting.
“I’m
a great beneficiary of that. I had a stroke, but I recovered. Thanks to
very good first aid I had, thanks for a very good medical team I had at
that time. So I regard myself as being very lucky,” he said. “In fact I
was at a recent overseas meeting, and one of the ministers from another
country said, ‘Oh, you’re very lucky you had a stroke while you’re in
Singapore. You all have such a high quality of medical care’, and I
said, ‘Indeed you’re right, we’re very lucky’.”
Mr Heng, who
suffered a stroke in May last year and progressively returned to work
just three months later, also echoed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s
call during his National Day Rally for Singaporeans to eat healthier and
to exercise more.
Speaking to reporters after the dialogue, Mr Heng spoke on the progress on economic restructuring.
Noting
that more than one-third of the Industry Transformation Maps in the
pipeline have been launched, he said: “It is an improvement over what we
were doing in the past, where the focus was just on productivity and
skills. By integrating the different elements, we are addressing the
issues more holistically.
“The results are promising, the ones
I’ve seen in the early stages have been encouraging. I do think that if
we persist in these efforts, we will continue to make good progress.”
Calling
all single ladies, if you think you fall into the categories of
'pretty' and 'decent', 'Superstar Steven Lim kor kor' has a proposition
for you.The YouTuber, who gained prominence for his shenanigans at the 2004 edition of Singapore Idol, has taken to Facebook to declare his interest in looking for a partner to marry and to share the cost of a condominium.
Other
than fulfilling the criteria mentioned at the beginning, Steven also
stated that the potential co-owner of the house should also have more
than $250,000 in her Central Provident Fund.
The 41-year-old wrote:
"Any Pretty Decent Ladies tat has savings includes cpf more than 250k sgd willing to get married n joint buy a condo 2gt?"
The post that was published on Oct 25, has since garnered more than 100 shares and a flood of comments.
It is unclear, however, if Steven has found anyone who is qualified enough to be bestowed with the honour of being his wife.
If you think you stand a chance, your eternal happiness may just a few clicks away... source
Miss Caitanya Tan was a newly minted graduate just
starting out on a career as an actress, and the 23-year-old was excited
at the prospect of attending the fifth Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong in
2011.She attended the awards ceremony with friends and took it all in,
going wide-eyed over the actors and actresses and soaking in the
atmosphere as the fans raised decibel levels outside the venue, cheering
their favourites on.
She also had a surreal encounter with Harvey Weinstein.The big-name film producer and co-founder of The Weinstein Company,
which recently sacked him, has been dominating the headlines recently
after a number of actresses, led by Ashley Judd and including A-listers
like Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow, exposed him for being a sexual
predator.
Various reports have emerged of how he lured actresses to his hotel
room where he asked for massages, or even masturbated in front of them.
Some actresses have also alleged that the Hollywood bigwig raped them,
including Asia Argento.Miss Tan - who has found fame after starring in the Mediacorp
television drama Tanglin - told The New Paper yesterday that she met
Weinstein, a keynote speaker at the event, on the red carpet
The 30-year-old said: "When we saw this limousine pull up and he
stepped out, my friend said he was an American superstar producer who
made so many big Hollywood movies."
I’m not a victim because nothing happened, but the reason I shared it
is because I think it’s important to report and speak out about it. Caitanya Tan
Her group went to take photos with Weinstein, who graciously obliged.
Once done, they went their separate ways, but Miss Tan recounted how
Weinstein then doubled back and catching her eye, asked: "Hey, are you
an actress?"Miss Tan, who at the time had a leading role in a stage production at Hong Kong Disneyland, acknowledged that she was.
She was excited at any prospect of working with a big-time Hollywood producer, but that did not last.
"Then he asked me: 'I have a couple of scripts with me, would you
like to come to my room to read them?' I thought that was really
creepy," she recalled.Miss Tan declined.
She said: "As he walked away, he asked me, 'Do you know who I am? Do you know I can make you very famous?'
"I was shocked and stood my ground."Miss Tan and her friends then parted ways with Weinstein and his
entourage, and she didn't think much of it until the recent bombshell
allegations about his untoward behaviour.In light of the mounting allegations and increasing number of women
speaking out against him, Miss Tan decided to share her own experience
on social media and also talk about it on The Pride, a website
associated with the Singapore Kindness Movement."I'm not a victim because nothing happened, but the reason I shared
it is because I think it's important to report and speak out about it,"
she said.
"Everyone's experience is important and I'm more vocal than I've ever been about sexism.
"That kind of behaviour is simply unacceptable." source
Bella Hadid has reportedly turned down the advances of one of Hollywood's hottest bachelors - Leonardo DiCaprio.The 20-year-old model was pictured in Cannes partying with the
Oscar-winning actor, and according to a report the pair even swapped
numbers. 42-year-old Leo recently split from his latest in a line of
model girlfriends, Nina Agdal, while Bella has been nursing a broken
heart since the end of her relationship with singer The Weeknd last
year. So with them both single, it seemed that the stars were about to
align, at least Leonardo may have thought so. But according to a pal
close to the catwalk star, Bella isn't so keen.
"Leo is so not her type," an insider told Heat magazine. "Bella
thinks he's ancient. She really likes edgy musicians, so I think she
finds him bland." It's not surprising that 'modelizer' Leo has got the
top model, and sister of Gigi Hadid, in his sights. His past conquests
include Brazilian beauty Gisele Bundchen, and Israeli model Bar Refaeli.
In a bid to woo Bella, Leonardo reportedly sent the Victoria's Secret
model "£3,500 worth of lingerie, 36 white roses and a bottle of
Champagne".
"Apparently Leo kept messaging Bella, inviting her on to his yacht
for a private trip," the insider added, but Bella has dismissed the
approaches and gave the swag away. "Bella gave it all to the hotel staff
and friends and sent a message to Leo saying maybe he should focus on
someone else, as she is happy being single right now." Or maybe she's
just not that into Leonardo, as the Nike brand ambassador has apparently
been Insta-stalking British boxing champion Anthony Joshua, enjoying
fun times on Lewis Hamilton's yacht and hanging out with model Jordan
Barrett.
Nice try, Leo.
SINGAPORE — A petition by two teenage environmental
advocates to get local curry puff makers Old Chang Kee and Polar Puffs
& Cakes to use sustainable palm oil has garnered more than 3,300
signatures.Launched on Monday (Oct 9), the petition
“Tell Old Chang Kee & Polar Puffs to stop frying our rainforests” is
gunning for 5,000 signatures.
It was started by 19-year-old university student
Regina Vanda and 15-year-old United World College student Gauri Shukla,
who are part of a group called Students of Singapore (SOS) Against Haze.
The duo said their petition singled out the two companies because curry
puffs are an iconic local snack that involve a significant amount of
oil to prepare.
But they want other homegrown companies
to also adopt sustainable practices, joining foreign firms that have
already done so. Swedish furniture giant IKEA, for instance, uses
certified-sustainable palm oil for candle-making, food production and
food preparation.The students said they have reached out to more than 20 other local firms including BreadTalk and Ya Kun Kaya Toast.
Ms
Vanda, a first-year Yale-NUS College student, said they are not calling
for a boycott of the companies’ products as “it would not be
meaningful”. Instead, they want to raise awareness among companies that
palm oil from unsustainable sources can contribute to deforestation and
haze in the region, which reached record levels in 2015.The pair have emailed and called the two companies and paid a visit to Old Chang Kee’s headquarters.
Old
Chang Kee’s marketing communications manager Ng Bee Lin told TODAY the
company uses oil that has been endorsed as a healthier option by the
Health Promotion Board, and is looking into sourcing oil that is
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)-certified. “Despite the many
challenges and limitations, our promise to consumers is that we will
continue to source for healthier and socially responsible cooking oil,
without compromising on the food quality and taste,” she said.
A
Polar Puffs spokesperson said vegetable oil accounts for less than 0.6
per cent of its ingredients because its products are butter-baked and
not oil-fried. The use of vegetable oil is “incidental”, while the
butter it uses is from New Zealand. “We also wish to assure our
customers that our vegetable oils currently used are from sustainable
sources,” the spokesperson said.
Non-governmental group,
the People’s Movement to Stop Haze (PM.Haze), is supportive of the duo’s
cause. PM.Haze runs its own #GoHazeFree campaign and co-founder Tan Yi
Han said it has reached out to eateries to get them to use
certified-sustainable palm oil. Burger joint VeganBurg has come on
board.
Local supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice announced
last year that its FairPrice Premium Cooking Oil and FairPrice Vegetable
Oil is from RSPO-certified sources.Meanwhile, Ms Vanda
and Gauri, a student at the United World College of Southeast Asia’s
Dover campus, are also promoting environmental consciousness in other
ways. Ms Vanda runs a blog while Gauri visited the forests of Sumatra in
2015 after winning an environmental competition.Todayonline
SINGAPORE — Describing his granddaughter as jovial and
respectful, the heartbroken grandfather of four-year-old Eleanor Tan Si
Xuan, who was killed earlier this week in a road accident, said that he
was in shock when he learnt she had lost her life.Speaking
to TODAY on Wednesday (Oct 11) at the girl’s wake at a public housing
block on Bukit Batok Street 31, Mr Ang, 53, a private-hire car driver
who declined to give his full name, said he was driving in the city when
he received a call from his daughter and Eleanor’s mother, Ms Jacelyn
Wong.
The words uttered to him: “Eleanor (is) no more already.”Rushing
to Eleanor’s side at the Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, where the girl
and the family’s domestic helper were taken, Mr Ang said he could not
accept the fact that she had been pronounced dead.“I
hoped my granddaughter would wake up ... I knew the doctor already
pronounced (her dead). But I just kept talking to her. I hope there
would be some (miracle),” he said, adding that Ms Wong and her husband
were also holding Eleanor’s hand and “asking her to wake up”.
At
about 6.40pm on Monday, Eleanor and the family’s helper, who were on
their way home from the girl’s childcare centre, were hit by a car along
Bukit Batok Central towards Bukit Batok West Avenue 2.
There
were no traffic lights at the spot where the duo had crossed the road,
he said. The domestic helper regained consciousness on Tuesday, added Mr
Ang.
A spokesperson for the Ng Teng Fong General
Hospital told TODAY on Wednesday afternoon that the domestic helper was
in a stable condition.
A 53-year-old male driver has been arrested for causing death by a rash act. Police investigations are in progress.
Mr
Ang last saw Eleanor on Monday morning, as she had stayed overnight at
his home on Bukit Batok Street 21, which is two blocks away from her
childcare centre.He and his wife, a professional in the
service line, have been caring for Eleanor since she was born in
December 2012. She bunks in at their home frequently since it is closer
to her childcare centre, which she attends on weekdays.
Typically,
her grandmother would take her to the childcare centre in the mornings.
However, there are times when she would ask Mr Ang to take her instead,
if she noticed that her grandmother had not eaten breakfast, he said.
On
how Eleanor’s mother, Ms Wong, was coping with the loss, Mr Ang said:
“We told her to accept it. The accident has already happened.”Ms
Wong had told Chinese newspaper Shin Min Daily News she would typically
pick Eleanor up from the childcare centre, but did not do so on Monday
as she was cooking her daughter’s favourite dish of steamed eggs at
home.
“Mothers have sixth sense. When I was cooking, I
was already feeling very uneasy,” the 24-year-old said. “When I received
the call from the hospital, I thought my daughter was just injured. It
was only when my husband and I went to the hospital that we found out
that our daughter was gone.”Ultimately, Mr Ang said the
family should stay happy for Eleanor. “The most important thing is that
we live happily (and) let Eleanor watch us be happy, so she’ll be happy
as well,” he told TODAY.
When asked what he would
remember Eleanor most for, Mr Ang said: “Her smile; she’s always
smiling. She is always respectful, so all the elders in the family dote
on her.”
Ms Julien Caballero, 26, Eleanor's form teacher
last year at the Prince Siddhattha Child Care Centre on Bukit Batok
Street 21, described the girl as a very friendly and expressive child.
Although she is no longer Eleanor's form teacher, the little girl would
still "never forget to say 'hello'", she recounted.
Eleanor
was also independent and would try to solve problems at the centre
herself and "ask for help only when she needs it", Ms Caballero added.
When
the centre's principal broke the news to staff members via text message
early on Tuesday, it was a huge shock. "I felt like I lost my own
child," Ms Caballero told TODAY.
Noting that the mood at
the centre was subdued and the teachers were very sad, she said: "I hope
I have really done something in her life. I have been trying to have
flashbacks and memories of her."Todayonline
The
mother of four-year-old girl Eleanor Tan, who died after being bit by a
car at Bukit Batok Central on Monday (Oct 9), had been preparing her
daughter’s favourite meal of steamed eggs during the accident. Eleanor was conveyed unconscious to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries.
A 37-year-old woman, understood to be the family's domestic helper, was also conveyed conscious to the hospital. Eleanor’s mother, Ms Jacelyn Wong, 24, told Shin Min Daily News that she would normally pick up her daughter. However
Eleanor told her that she wanted steamed eggs, and the domestic helper
did not know how to prepare the dish, so Ms Wong stayed home to cook
instead.
Ms Wong said:
“All mothers have a sixth sense.
“The whole time while I was cooking, I felt disturbed.
“When I received a call from the hospital, I thought initially that my daughter was just injured.
“Only when my husband and I reached the hospital did we realise that she was gone.
“I kept thinking to myself then that this wasn’t real, and I must be dreaming.”
According
to a passer-by, when the car collided with Eleanor and the domestic
helper, the impact cracked the front windshield of the vehicle.Both Eleanor and the maid were tossed into the air and hit the rear windscreen of the vehicle as they landed. Traces of blood were left behind at the scene after the accident. A witness to the accident, Low Ko Chim, 63, was sitting outside his shop at Block 644 Bukit Batok Central when he heard a crash.
He rushed over to investigate and saw Eleanor and the maid lying on the road, a few metres apart.
He said:
"I went down to see if I could help because I know some first aid from when I was in the St John's Ambulance Brigade.”Mr Low kept the domestic helper conscious by talking to her as they waited for the ambulance to arrive.He told The Straits Times that people often jaywalked along the stretch of road where the accident happened.
Another witness, Dr Stanley Peck, 48, was in his clinic attending to a patient when he was alerted to the incident.He rushed down to the scene with an emergency kit where he performed chest compressions on the unconscious Eleanor.
Nurses from another clinic also attended to Eleanor with an oxygen mask and intravenous drip.
According to Dr Peck, Eleanor did not have a pulse. Her head was also bleeding and there were bruises on her legs. In
response to media queries, a police spokesman said that the police were
alerted to the accident at 6.41pm which happened in the direction of
Bukit Batok West Avenue 2. A 53-year-old driver was arrested for causing death by a rash act.Police investigations are ongoing.
SINGAPORE — Jazz vocalist Joanna Dong has finished third in
the Sing! China finals, failing to make the cut for the grand final
involving the top two contestants.Zhaxipingcuo, 30, who is known for mixing World music with elements of Tibetan performances, emerged the grand champion.
Dong, 35, performed a reinterpretation of Applause by Fong
Fei-fei on Sunday night (Oct 8) at the iconic Beijing National Stadium.Earlier
in the evening, she sang Simple Love together with mentor Jay Chou.
Clad in a stylish purple dress, she incorporated The Carpenter’s Top of
World in her performance.After their song, the mandopop
star said that he was very satisfied with her performance, adding that
it was a very “relaxed” opening song.
Dong was up against
four finalists from the other mentors’ teams in the season two finale
of the programme — Doris Guo from Team Na Ying, Xiao Kaiye and Ye
Xiaoyue from Team Eason Chan, and Zhaxipingcuo from Team Liu Huan.Based
on results after the first two rounds of performances – where the
audience was asked to cast votes, Guo and Zhaxipingcuo advanced to the
penultimate contest.
The Tibetan artiste edged out Guo, a
17-year old prodigy from Hunan, with a score of 105.18 versus 95.82.
The final score was a matrix of votes cast by 101 professional judges
and the audience.
Dong is the second Singaporean after
Nathan Hartono to make it to the Sing! China finals. Last year, he took
second place in season one of the show. He also chose Chou as a mentor.Hartono
competed against five other finalists and performed the song Nunchucks
with Jay Chou and a cover of the latter’s The Longest Movie in the grand
finals.Todayonline
A Japanese woman died from overwork after clocking 159 hours of overtime in a the month leading her to death.Miwa Sado, 31, was a political journalist suffered a heart failure in July 2013 and her employer made the case public this week.Labour minister Katsunobu Kato on Friday urged the public broadcaster to reduce long working hours.
“We
urge NHK to manage work hours and cut long working hours… so that such
incidents will never happen,” Kato told reporters, according to the
Asahi Shimbun.
Every year in Japan, long working hours are blamed for dozens of deaths due to strokes, heart attacks and suicides.
Miwa Sado, 31, was a political journalist suffered a heart failure in July 2013 and her employer made the case public this week.
Labour minister Katsunobu Kato on Friday urged the public broadcaster to reduce long working hours.
“We
urge NHK to manage work hours and cut long working hours… so that such
incidents will never happen,” Kato told reporters, according to the
Asahi Shimbun.
Every year in Japan, long working hours are blamed for dozens of deaths due to strokes, heart attacks and suicides.
Steve Ong posted his horrible experience when he almost lost his son due to soba noodles yesterday (7 October 2017) This is what he said on his post:
I almost lost a son today.
During dinner, Braxton had some soba noodles and oranges. Shortly
after, his lips and eyes turned reddish, and tummy began to bloat. My
wife thought its due to earlier medication as he was sick for past few
days. However things turned complicated. He started to cough (wheezing
sound) and developed difficulty breathing. Sensing something not right,
my wife quickly rushed him to the clinic located in the mall (luckily
its still open) for immediate medical aid. Dr Lai Yirong of Physicians
Practice Family Medical Centre at United Sq overheard Brax’s unusual
coughing sound and dashed out of her room to assess his condition. His
airway had swelled and was cutting off his air supply. It was between
life and death.
She quickly carried out treatment on Brax but he was totally
unresponsive and in the state of sleep. “Keep him awake! Don’t let him
sleep!” Dr Lai told my wife. The situation was very tense and Dr Lai did
all she could to regain his breathing. Finally his condition took a
turn after nebuliser was administered. My son was saved and coping well
now, currently warded for further observation and allergic test.
To all parents, we witnessed how life threatening an allergic
reaction could be. And it could potentially be due to the soba noodle
(buckwheat ingredient) where reported cases of anaphylatic shock in
Japan and UK took away a few lives. If your kids are trying out soba for
the first time, pls pay some attention.Lastly, our heartfelt gratitude to Dr Lai Yirong. She kept Brax’s dreams alive.
*I have received requests from friends to share this post. Pls do if we can help raise awareness. Thanks!
At Jurong East, a supermarket lodges a compliant that a convenience
store located at Jurong west has “crossed the boundary” to Jurong East
by distributing flyers and providing free shuttle services, causing them
to lose 30 per cent of profits.The main customers to the
supermarket, situated at Toh Guan Road in Jurong East, are migrant
workers, according to Ms Mo Mei Lian, 43, owner of the store. She told
Lianhe Zaobao since last month their rival reached out to the workers at
their dormitory areas. On 23 August, it came to their attention that
the new mart distributed flyers just outside workers’ dormitory. On 10
September, they were surprised that their rival was offering free lorry
rides for workers to visit their store at Jurong West.
A quick
look at the flyers that were distributed revealed that the rival store
located at Penjuru Recreation Centre Migrant Workers’ centre sells fresh
meat and groceries at extremely low price.
“The flyer also
advertises that the free shuttle runs to and from their store. The
business in the region has been blatantly undercut by them,” complained
Ms Mo, “their rental rate is much lower than ours by $35,000. This is
truly unfair.”she
also said that the rival store offered call-booking services for
customer pick-ups.
Ms Mo expressed that her business has been critically
affected, with 30 per cent loss incurred in a month. “They would fetch
the workers at least twice to thrice on a weekly basis.”
“In
fact, our store gives already cheap offers, with one sack of 25kg rice
sold at $31, 3 melons at $1, 3 cucumbers at $0.50. The rival still
deliberately offers markdowns.”Since then, Ms Mo has submitted a feedback to the management office at the building that houses the rival store.According to Lianhe Zaobao, upon receiving the complaint, the store has stopped shuttle services.
SMRT’s Director of Control Operations, Teo Wee Kiat, was fined
$55,000 in court last Friday over the untimely deaths of 2 trainee staff
members, who were hit by a passenger train on 22 March last year.The
41-year-old admitted that he failed to take necessary measures to
ensure the safety of SMRT’s employees and failed to ensure that they
complied with approved operating procedures during traffic hours. He
also admitted that he failed to ensure the procedures passed safety
audits and making sure that they were documented and disseminated.
The
prosecution argued that the Operations Control Center under Teo’s
charge had permitted employees to access the tracks while live trains
were running – this is apparently in direct contravention of safety
standards. The Ministry of Manpower further asserted that such practices
date all the way back to 2002.Both men who were killed, Mr
Nasrulhudin Najumudin, 25, and Mr Muhammad Asyraf Ahmad Buhari, 24,
joined SMRT in January 2016 and were part of a technical team of 15 that
went down to the track to investigate a reported alarm from a condition
monitoring device for signalling equipment. Track access was authorised
and the men had been on the walkway alongside the track.SMRT’s
CEO, Desmond Kuek, confirmed soon after the accident on 22 Feb that the
maintenance investigation was a “supervised activity” and that a
supervisor had been walking in front of the two men killed.
However, SMRT has now acknowledged that safety protocols were not
followed in the lead-up to an accident.
SMRT’s safety protocols
require the maintenance staff must coordinate with the Signal unit at
the station for oncoming trains to be brought to a stop, and to ensure
that no trains enter the affected area before they step on the
trackway. SMRT said that its records do not show that this procedure
took place.Mr Kuek had on 22 Feb said, “exactly how they got on
to the track, or got close enough to the oncoming train, that was moving
in the direction opposite to them, is the issue that we’re trying to
establish with the witnesses that we are trying to get detailed accounts
from.”
Following this, several news outlets reported that the
victims of the tragic accident near Pasir Ris station “were on the other
side of the track from the dedicated walkway for maintenance staff when
they were hit by the train.”In response, SMRT only said that
it is unable to confirm if the victims were on the trackway or on the
walkway when they were hit, or if anyone in the group had deviated from
the walkway at any point in time.SMRT has since been fined $400,000 for the accident.
SINGAPORE — A married father of two who sneaked up on his
colleague to kiss her and grope her breasts was jailed seven months on
Thursday (Oct 5) for outrage of modesty.A month
earlier, the 40-year-old Filipino, a store manager, had also threatened
to circulate nude photos of his ex-girlfriend, a 27-year-old Filipino,
in what he claims was an attempt to stop her from contacting him. For
criminal intimidation, he was sentenced to six weeks’ jail.His wife was present during sentencing. He and his victims cannot be named to protect the women’s identities.In
claiming trial, the man denied molesting his co-worker, a 23-year-old
Singaporean. He maintained that the kiss was consensual and he was
giving her a “massage”.
The court heard that on Nov 2 in
2015, he and his victim were alone in the dry store of their orkplace.
Walking up from behind her, he reached into her polo T-shirt and
slipped his hand under her bra to touch her breasts. He then pulled her
to his lap and kissed her on the lips.The victim said
that she cried and left the dry store. She later stopped returning to
work. Her other co-workers were shocked and doubted her account of what
had happened.
She told the court: “I don’t even know him
and (I am not in a) relationship with him or anything… (I became)
jobless, and he’s still working... I am the one being fired.”After
the incident, she developed a phobia towards men, even towards her
father. She would get scared when men come towards her or near her, or
just stand beside her, Deputy Public Prosecutor Gail Wong said when she
asked for a sentence of at least nine months.Defence
lawyer Peter Ong Lip Cheng asked for less than three months’ jail,
saying that the man made a “one-off serious offence” and is “ashamed of
what he has done”.
District Judge Ong Chin Rhu ruled
that the case “involved direct contact” which “would usually attract a
longer sentence”, so the man deserves a seven-month sentence.For
the criminal intimidation offence, the court heard that the man had
sent two email messages to his ex-girlfriend, threatening to forward her
nude photographs to her friends and relatives.In his
first email, he attached 19 nude photos of her, asking her if she wanted
people in her office or her Facebook friends to see the pictures first.
A second email with a similar message carried 13 nude photos of her.
Netizen and local author, Balli Kaur Jaswal, has responded to a
forum letter decrying the increasing racial discrimination prevalent in
Singapore by reminding the letter writer, a Chinese Singaporean, of her
Chinese Privilege.According to Balli, who is of Indian descent, she experiences
racist encounters several times worse than what the letter writer, Dr
Lee Siew Peng, has ever experienced. She expressed no surprise that Dr
Lee encountered a hostile racist in Europe where Chinese were the
minority, and related that she experienced such incidents of racism even
more often in Singapore.
She wrote: "Oh, Dr. Lee. I have no idea which generation you’re
from but I can tell you that in my and my parents’ lifetimes,
“regardless of race, language or religion” were words recited daily in a
national pledge for 10 seconds during each morning school assembly and
then conveniently ignored for the remainder of the day. You sound
shocked and dismayed that race has become an issue in Singapore without
realizing that it has always been an issue for minorities.
If you’ve noticed more conversations about race lately, it’s
because we have more platforms to talk about it now – social media has
been very beneficial for the previously voiceless (You do know there are
other outlets besides the Forum section? I remember when state-run
media was the only space to air grievances in Singapore. Strangely, they
never published any of my or my friends’ letters about issues like
racial discrimination in the workplace or those TV screens on the public
buses that only played Mandarin shows during peak hour).Unfortunately, it means that you and others who were accustomed to
never having to think about race, have a lot of catching up to do."
Police are investigating a case of alleged suicide in a toilet
cubicle in Bras Basah, which took place yesterday evening on the 4th
floor of the building complex.According to news reports, the girl was found by a cleaner, who came
across a locked cubicle during one of her rounds. When she knocked on
the cubicle door and received no response, she looked through a gap
between the door and the floor and saw a girl with a skirt sitting on
the floor.
She quickly sought the help of a manager and both of them managed to get the door open.
To their horror, they found a young girl with a rope strung around
her neck. The rope had been tied to a metal support bar in the cubicle.
Blood was flowing from the girl's nose and there were traces of blood
on her shoulder.
Police identified the girl as 19 year-old Megan Goh Xin Yi, who had
been working as an intern at a designer firm at Bras Basah Complex.Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.Investigations are ongoing.
