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Man Sentenced To 45 Months Jail For Sexually Abusing Stepdaughter When She Was 6

She was just six years old when her stepfather began sexually abusing her.

He even preyed on the girl on the night his wife was in hospital giving birth to their first daughter.

Out of love for him and not wanting her mother and half-sisters to hate her, the girl kept quiet for about eight years.

But this came at a cost to her own emotional and psychological state. She became deeply affected and would inflict injuries on herself.

She eventually confided in a school counsellor as she did not want her stepfather to perform the same sordid acts on her half-sisters.

These details were revealed in the grounds of decision by District Judge Lee-Khoo Poh Choo, who sentenced the stepfather to 45 months’ jailon seven charges of sexual exploitation on Wednesday.

The accused is now in his 50s and his trial lasted two years. He is appealing against his conviction and sentence.

The judge said in her grounds of decision that the accused got to know the girl’s mother in 1998. They were married in 2002.

The couple cannot be named to protect the girl’s identity.

Judge Lee-Khoo said that the girl, now 21, had testified during the trial that her stepfather first had sex with her when she was six years old.

This continued for about six years until she was in Primary 6, when they stopped for fear she would get pregnant.

It was during this period that the stepfather would also perform obscene acts on her.

Sometime between Sept 7 and 8, 2005, the then 11-year-old girl was asleep in her home when her stepfather touched her private parts.

The girl’s mother was in hospital giving birth, noted the judge.

The accused would repeat the act on the girl six more times until March 2010, when the girl was 14.

She testified he would sometimes tell her he was going to touch her when he picked her up after school in his lorry.

AFRAID

She kept mum about the abuse because she was afraid her mother and half-sisters would turn on her and that no one would believe her.

She shared what had happened with a school counsellor she had been seeing due to her poor grades.

It was later discovered the girl had harmed herself because she had physical urges as a result of the abuse, the judge said.

The girl underwent counselling and therapy for two years – delaying the trial till 2014, the judge said.

In court, the stepfather, who worked as a construction site project supervisor, had claimed that his stepdaughter lied about the abuse as she was angry at him for punishing her for her high phone bill.

But Judge Lee-Khoo said in her grounds of decision that she found the girl forthright, coherent and credible.

She added that the girl had nothing to gain and instead, lost the love and warmth of her family.

After finding the stepfather guilty, the judge said: “His depraved, immoral acts left their marks on the young and vulnerable victim forever.

“He had destroyed the warm, close-knit family life that the victim had with her mother and half-sisters.”

His depraved, immoral acts left their marks on the young and vulnerable victim forever.

– District Judge Lee-Khoo Poh Choo on the stepdad

Source: www.tnp.sg

November 27, 2016
Dalai Lama On Rohingya Muslims: If Buddha Happened, He Would Protect The Rohingya Brothers And Sisters

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has a moral responsibility to try to ease tensions between majority Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims, her fellow Nobel laureate, the Dalai Lama, said on Monday.

The Tibetan spiritual leader said he had stressed the issue in meetings with Suu Kyi, who came to power in April in the newly created role of state counsellor in Myanmar’s first democratically elected government in five decades.

“She already has the Nobel Peace Prize, a Nobel Laureate, so morally she should … make efforts to reduce this tension between the Buddhist community and Muslim community,” he told Reuters in an interview in Washington.
“I actually told her she should speak more openly.”

Violence between majority Buddhists and minority Muslims in recent years has cast a cloud over progress with democratic reforms in Myanmar. Rights groups have sharply criticized Suu Kyi’s reluctance to speak out on the Rohingya’s plight.

The Dalai Lama said Suu Kyi, who won worldwide acclaim and a Nobel Peace Prize as a champion of democratic change in the face of military persecution, had responded to his calls by saying that the situation was “really complicated.”

“So I don’t know,” he said.

There is widespread hostility towards Rohingya Muslims in the Buddhist-majority country, including among some within Suu Kyi’s party and its supporters.

More than 100 people were killed in violence in western Rakhine state in 2012, and some 125,000 Rohingya Muslims, who are stateless, took refuge in camps where their movements are severely restricted.

Thousands have fled persecution and poverty in an exodus by boat to neighboring South and Southeast Asian countries.

The Dalai Lama said some Buddhist monks in Myanmar “seem to have some kind of negative attitude to Muslims” and Buddhists who harbored such thoughts “should remember Buddha’s face.”

“If Buddha happened, he certainly would protect those Muslim brothers and sisters,” he said.

The new Myanmar government announced late last month that Aung San Suu Kyi would lead a new effort to bring peace and development to Rakhine State.

The announcement offered no details on how the group would go about addressing the state’s multitude of problems.
Suu Kyi said during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last month that the country needed “enough space” to deal with the Rohingya issue and cautioned against the use of “emotive terms”, that she said were making the situation more difficult.

Source: http://indianexpress.com

November 27, 2016
F1: The Glamour Is Gone So Let’s Move On

F1 supremo Bernie Whatshisnamestone said that Singapore might withdraw from the F1 circuit because we treated the F1 like a used tissue paper or something to that effect.

He was telling the truth, you know.

F1 is nothing but a glamour sport. In its heyday back in the 70’s, everyone was enthralled by the playboy lifestyle of the F1 drivers and the decadence and excesses of the spectators. It was a sport for the rich and famous and poor plebs like me could only sniff at the images of racing cars on the pages of soiled magazines on the library stands. Don’t judge me.

But not anymore. The current champion, Lewis Hamilton is more pristine than a Greek virgin……oil. The cars they drive are so computerised that they are better off driving on the arcade machines and we are better off watching that.

Even when Singapore first mooted the idea of hosting the F1, the excitement of the race was already on the wane. But we decided to proceed because we had a point to make. We wanted Singapore to be known as a global city to attract real foreign talents to work and live here and F1 could provide that pull. And consequently by successfully organising what was and still is a complex night race in the middle of a city, Singapore has shown to the world our innovation, creativity and never-say-die attitude.

And so having achieved all that and our money-shot (see pic above), it is now about dollars and cents. If we are not making money out of F1, we should just stop hosting it.

Uncle Bernie should understand all about money. He single-handedly polished a turd to sell it as a multi-billion dollar diamond.

Seriously. Who would sit in the heat, breathing in the toxic exhaust fumes just to watch a bunch of racing cars zooming past in split-seconds forty-nine4 times? Unless it was all about hype.

But the hype is gone now.

So we should just say thank you to Uncle Bernie. All good things will come to an end. And the era of F1 in Singapore is truly over.

Source: https://thesingaporebeacon.com

November 27, 2016
United Nations: Myanmar Seeking Ethnic Cleansing Of Rohingyas

Myanmar is seeking the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority from its territory, a senior UN official has told the BBC.

Armed forces have been killing Rohingya in Rakhine state, forcing many to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, says John McKissick of the UN refugee agency.

The government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been conducting counter-insurgency operations since coordinated attacks on border guards in October.

It denies reports of atrocities.

Burmese officials say Rohingyas are setting fire to their own houses in northern Rakhine state. The BBC cannot visit the area to verify what is occurring there as journalists and aid workers have been barred.

The Rohingya, who number about one million, are seen by many of Myanmar’s Buddhist majority as illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

‘Collective punishment’

Although Bangladesh’s official policy is not to allow in illegal entrants across the border, the foreign ministry has confirmed that thousands of Rohingyas have already sought refuge in Bangladesh. Thousands more are reportedly gathering on the border.

Efforts to resolve the issue must focus on “the root cause” inside Myanmar, Mr McKissick, head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR in the Bangladeshi border town of Cox’s Bazar told BBC Bengali’s Akbar Hossain.

He said the Myanmar military and Border Guard Police had “engaged in collective punishment of the Rohingya minority” after the murders of nine border guards on 9 October which some politicians blamed on a Rohingya militant group.

Security forces have been “killing men, shooting them, slaughtering children, raping women, burning and looting houses, forcing these people to cross the river” into Bangladesh, Mr McKissick said.

“Now it’s very difficult for the Bangladeshi government to say the border is open because this would further encourage the government of Myanmar to continue the atrocities and push them out until they have achieved their ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority in Myanmar,” he said.

On Wednesday, the Bangladesh foreign ministry summoned Myanmar’s ambassador to express “deep concern” over the military operation in northern Rakhine state.

It said “desperate people” were crossing the border seeking safety and shelter and asked Myanmar to “ensure the integrity of its border”.

Authorities in Bangladesh have been detaining and repatriating hundreds of fleeing Rohingya.

© BBC Map showing Maungdaw’s location in Rakhine State

Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch released satellite images which it said showed that more than 1,000 homes had been razed in Rohingya villages over the past six weeks.

What is happening in Rakhine state?

A massive security operation was launched last month after nine police officers were killed in co-ordinated attacks on border posts in Maungdaw.

Some government officials blamed a militant Rohingya group for the attacks. Security forces then sealed off access to Maungdaw district and launched a counter-insurgency operation.

Rohingya activists say more than 100 people have been killed and hundreds arrested amid the crackdown.

Soldiers have also been accused of serious human rights abuses, including torture, rape and executions, which the government has flatly denied.

It says militants have attacked helicopter gunships providing air support to troops.

Who are the Rohingya?

The estimated one million Muslim Rohingya are seen by many in mainly Buddhist Myanmar as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. They are denied citizenship by the government despite many having lived there for generations.

Communal violence in Rakhine state in 2012 left scores dead and displaced more than 100,000 people, with many Rohingya still remaining in decrepit camps.

They face widespread discrimination and mistreatment.

Is the government to blame?

Myanmar held its first openly contested election in 25 years last November, with Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy winning a landslide victory.

Though she is barred from the presidency due to a constitutional rule, Ms Suu Kyi, who serves as State Counsellor, is seen as de-facto leader.

But her government, led as it is by a former human rights icon, has faced international criticism over the dire situation in Rakhine state.

Rights groups have questioned why journalists and aid workers are not being allowed to enter northern Rakhine.

Presidential spokesman Zaw Htay says the international media is misreporting what is going on.

Source: www.msn.com

November 27, 2016
Palestine Sends Four Firefighting Teams To Help Israel Fight Wildfires

Israel has accepted an offer of help from the Palestinian authorities to tackle the wildfires that have engulfed large areas of central and northern parts of the country.

The crisis has forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes as flames have swept into the country’s third largest city of Haifa.

Four Palestinian firefighting teams will join the effort to combat the fires.

A senior Israeli official told daily newspaper Haaretz that Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories will oversee the cooperation between the Palestinian and the Israeli fire crews.

Russia, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Croatia and Cyprus are all also helping fight the blaze, while America has agreed to send a Boeing 747 “Supertanker” firefighting plane.

Israel’s chief of police has blamed the fires on arson attacks, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said such an attack would be treated as terrorism.

Israeli police said on Friday they had arrested 12 people on suspicion of arson.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a dozen people had been detained either while attempting to set fires or fleeing the area, but he provided no further details.

Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan said they were “minorities”, an allusion to either Arab Israeli citizens or Palestinians.

“The highest likelihood is that the motive is nationalistic,” Mr Erdan told Army Radio.

The flames, which have raged since Tuesday, have been fanned by strong winds during an exceptionally dry period.

Source: www.independent.co.uk

November 27, 2016