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Man Charged For Sexually Abusing Niece Who Was Then Only 12 Years Old

A construction firm supervisor appeared in the High Court yesterday accused of sexually abusing his young niece, who had looked up to him as a “father figure”.

The 51-year-old Malaysian faces a total of six charges for sexual acts with the victim on five occasions from 2005 – when she was just 12 years old – to 2008.

They include one count of rape, two counts of oral sex, one count of sexual exploitation of a child, one count of outrage of modesty and one count of sexual assault of a minor.

The man, represented by Mr N. Kanagavijayan, has admitted to the charge of sexual assault, committed in 2008 when the girl was 15. However, he is disputing the other five charges, including the most serious one of rape, which carries up to 20 years’ jail and caning or a fine.

A seven-day trial started in the High Court yesterday.

The alleged victim is now 23 years old. A probation officer who accompanied her to report the offences is among the six prosecution witnesses.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ong Luan Tze said in the prosecution’s opening address that the victim regarded the accused, her maternal aunt’s common law husband, as a “father figure” after her biological father died in 2003.

The accused abused his position in the victim’s life to sexually groom her and performed sexual acts with her without her consent, the DPP contended.

On one occasion in 2005, he sexually abused her while helping her to change her clothes to visit her mother in hospital.

On another occasion, he woke her up and slipped his hand into her shorts.

The trial continues.

Source: http://news.asiaone.com

August 27, 2015
MOH: No Link Found Between GBS And Sashimi Consumption

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has not found any link between the Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infection and consumption of sashimi-style raw fish, it said yesterday (Aug 26).

It posted a clarification on Facebook, stating that its investigations have only found an association between GBS infections and the consumption of “yusheng” — a raw fish dish. It had earlier detected traces of the bacteria on samples of Toman fish and Song fish.

MOH’s Facebook note comes after was alerted to a rumour being circulated via WhatsApp and SMS. The message claims one person died from a bacterial infection after eating sashimi over the Jubilee weekend and that a professor was critically ill from consuming salmon sashimi two months ago.

Screenshot of a message circulating via WhatsApp. Photo: Channel NewsAsia

Last month, the ministry noticed a spike in GBS cases and advised food stall holders to temporarily stop the sales of raw fish dishes using Song fish and Toman fish. A few GBS patients told Channel NewsAsia that they had painful swelling of the joints and some had to have surgery.

The health ministry yesterday reiterated that there has been a downtrend in the number of GBS cases since mid-July, after the sale of yusheng was halted.

“MOH would like to reiterate that GBS is a common bacterium that colonises the human gut and urinary tract. While GBS does not usually cause disease in healthy individuals, it may occasionally cause infections of the bloodstream, skin and soft tissue, joints, lungs and brain. The risk factors for GBS infection include underlying chronic or co-morbid conditions,” it said.

“As a general precaution, vulnerable groups of people, especially young children, pregnant women, elderly persons, or people with chronic illness such as diabetes, should continue to exercise caution by avoiding raw ready-to-eat food.”

Source: www.todayonline.com

August 27, 2015
PAP – Same Old, Same Old

The Elections Department (ELD) is tweaking the rules again, raising maximum spending limit from $3.50 to $4.00 per voter, tilting the “level playing” field to political parties with deeper pockets. Other changes include new ballot papers featuring candidates’ mugshots “to help the elderly identify the candidates”. Since we only get to see these guys face to face once in fifty five years, we won’t know the purity of their hearts from a brief encounter. What they should include is an accompanying short quote reflective of their true colours:

“If you’re lazy and work less, you’ll have less Medisave” – Khaw Boon Wan

“Without foreign workers, Singapore is likely to become a ‘garbage city’. Cleanliness is a character thing. It shows who you really are.” – Goh Chok Tong on Tokyo has no rubbish even though the Japanese capital has no rubbish bins in public places

“A manpower policy that advocates hiring “Singaporeans first” will not benefit the economy in the long term” – Senior Minister of State for Manpower Amy Khor

“We (also) need to reflect, are we the way they described?” – Baey Yam Keng on Sun Xu’s “more dogs than humans in Singapore”

“However, it may not be wise to call for the tradeoffs to be tilted further to an extent that it dissuades good people from coming forward in future” – Grace Fu on ministerial pay cut

“Some cardboard collectors treat it (collection of cardboards) as a form of exercise and activity rather than being cooped up at home” – Tan Chuan Jin

“Well, everybody has a car, we have two — my wife drives one, I drive one. We are both professionals, we need to travel” – Koh Poh Koon on car ownership

“…I regret making the decision because, in the end, the baby continued to be in intensive care, and KKH now runs up a total bill of more than $300,000…”- Lim Hng Kiang on regretting the decision to save a baby’s life.

“If we spent 387 million dollars, will we get value from that expenditure? In my mind, the answer… is yes.” – Vivian Balakrishnan on YOG budget blowout

“Whether a participant perished or survived depended on where he or she happened to be at the time.” Heng Swee Kiat on why 12 year olds died on Mt Kinabalu

Tattler

* The writer blogs at singaporedesk.blogspot.com.

Source: www.tremeritus.com

August 27, 2015
Reform Party Will Contest Pioneer SMC – Should NSP Pull Out

The Reform Party (RP) wants to contest Pioneer Single Member Constituency (SMC) – but not if it means entering a three-cornered fight, party Secretary-General Kenneth Jeyaretnam said on Wednesday (Aug 26).

The National Solidarity Party (NSP) was previously set to contest the SMC after a series of talks between most of the Opposition parties in early August. Mr Steve Chia – who took 39.27 per cent of the votes in Pioneer in the 2011 General Election – was originally expected to contest again under the NSP banner, but he has since pulled out of contesting the 2015 General Election entirely.

The People’s Action Party incumbent Cedric Foo will be defending his seat in the single-seat constituency in the coming General Election.

On Wednesday, Mr Jeyaretnam said RP had initially pulled out of Pioneer only because Mr Chia was contesting the SMC, but should now be given the chance to contest if NSP is unable to field a “strong candidate” there.

“We agreed to relinquish our interest in Pioneer only because Steve Chia from NSP said he would be standing again. We felt he was a strong candidate and had a good chance of winning, having done well in 2011. However he has now withdrawn entirely from the election,” said Mr Jeyaretnam.

“If NSP withdraw entirely or are unable to field a strong candidate then we feel that we should be given the chance to contest as we have many excess candidates. However, in the interests of unity and solidarity among the Opposition, we will not enter a three-cornered fight.

“We hope that NSP will clarify its intentions shortly.”

The RP chief said his party is declaring its interest publicly as it has been trying to contact NSP President Sebastian Teo and Organising Secretary Spencer Ng, but with no success.

Pioneer was formerly part of West Coast GRC, but was carved out for the 2011 General Election. RP is set to contest West Coast GRC again in the 2015 General Election, having done so four years ago. The party has been visiting residents in Pioneer SMC since 2011, RP said.

The RP added that in “similar spirit of Opposition solidarity”, they have contacted independent candidate Tan Lam Siong to offer him a place in one of their GRC teams or in an SMC to avoid a three-cornered fight in Potong Pasir SMC, but have been unable to dissuade him.

Mr Tan confirmed that RP tabled an offer for him to contest Radin Mas SMC, but he did not accept it.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

August 27, 2015
7 Opposition Parties Launch Campaign Badge

Taking a leaf out of United States President Barack Obama’s playbook, several opposition parties unveiled a campaign badge carrying the words “Vote for Change” to signal their common goal in the Sept 11 General Election.

The seven parties – excluding the Workers’ Party (WP) and Singapore People’s Party (SPP) – also renewed their commitment to unity yesterday during the event, held at the Singaporeans First party headquarters in Tras Street.

The red badge was launched by representatives from the SingFirst party, Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA), Democratic Progressive Party, Reform Party and People’s Power Party (PPP).

“Vote for Change” was Mr Obama’s campaign slogan during the 2008 US presidential elections.

The National Solidarity Party and Singapore Democratic Party were also part of the effort but they did not attend the launch yesterday due to prior engagements, said PPP chief Goh Meng Seng.

It appears that another objective of the badge is to help raise funds. Mr Goh said some of the parties, including his, would be selling the badges for $5 each during their election rallies.

He added that the badge would be “a sign of unity among the opposition parties”, and that their supporters would wear it during the upcoming campaign period.

Mr Goh told reporters he hoped the badge would end the in-fighting and disagreements that have dogged the opposition parties.

“We will move on to the real battlefield, one that is based on our policy views,” he said.

Mr Goh added that invitations to this unity effort were extended to all nine opposition parties but the WP and SPP did not respond.

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com

August 27, 2015