Tag: Singapore

Some Maggi Noodles With Unsafe Lead Level Exported To Singapore

New Delhi: Indian shopkeepers withdrew a popular brand of Nestle instant noodles from their shelves on Wednesday after tests revealed the snack contained unsafe levels of lead.

India’s states have either ordered the withdrawal of Maggi noodles from shops or are carrying out further tests on noodle samples before taking action in conjunction with the federal government.

Maggi sales have plunged in India since laboratory tests showed the noodles contained lead at levels far higher than the legal maximum. The tests also detected the chemical flavour enhancer monosodium glutamate, or MSG, which is not mentioned in the product’s list of ingredients.

On Tuesday, the Delhi government said it had conducted tests on 13 samples of Maggi noodles and 10 were found to be unsafe with lead exceeding the allowable level. Earlier tests, performed by food safety authorities in Uttar Pradesh state, showed that samples contained 17.2 parts per million of lead, many times the allowable limits which range between 0.01 and 2.5 ppm.

The Delhi government said it will take legal action against Nestle India, which is a subsidiary of Swiss-based Nestle SA, and was meeting Wednesday with company officials. It banned the sale of Maggi noodles in all state-run stores in the Indian capital for 15 days. Several major grocery chains in the city have also announced that they are taking the noodles off shelves.

A Nestle spokesperson said a majority of Maggi noodles produced in India are sold in India but a limited amount are exported to the U.S. , Canada, the United Kingdom, Kenya and Singapore.

Maggi noodles are a hot favourite with school and college students and Nestle’s “two-minute” advertising campaign stressing the ease of making the snack have made it a household name in India. The noodles are Nestle’s fastest selling food item in India, clocking around 15 billion rupees ($240 million) in sales annually.

Excessive intake of lead can cause damage to the kidneys, bones and nervous system. It is particularly harmful to children and can cause learning disorders. Health experts say MSG, often used as a flavor enhancer in processed food and in some restaurants, can damage the nervous system with long-term use.

The government of the southern state of Kerala has stopped the distribution of Maggi noodles and ordered more than 1,000 state-run grocery stores to withdraw the product. The state governments of Haryana, West Bengal and Maharashtra have begun the process of testing noodle samples for lead and MSG. — AP

Our Mumbai correspondent adds: Maharashtra’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has collected about 10 samples of Maggi noodles packets, has so far not encountered any negative reports relating to the product by multinational Nestle.

According to FDA commissioner Harshadeep Kamble, the final test results are expected by Friday after which the regulator will decide on the future course of action. The FDA collected samples from Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and a few other cities and is conducting tests at its laboratories. While the FDA and the state government have not imposed any ban on the sale of Maggi noodles in the state, there has been a sharp fall in the sale of the popular instant food, following widespread media coverage about actions being initiated by various states including Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Delhi. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has also directed all states to check samples of the noodles and get them tested at laboratories.

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

June 4, 2015
Malaysia Has More Religious Freedom Than US, Singapore, Christian Group Says

There is more freedom of religion in Malaysia compared to Singapore and the United States, both of which imposes stricter laws against various faiths, a prominent Christian preacher said today.

President of a new non-governmental organisation Christians for Peace and Harmony Malaysia (CPHM), Reverend Wong Kim Kong said that an individual preaching a different religion can be prosecuted in Singapore but not in Malaysia.

“In Singapore, if you preach other religions in a sermon, or you pray to a god made of wood, they’ll report to the police under the Singapore Religious Harmony Act, you’ll (be) prosecuted.

“In Malaysia, even if you talk bad about a different religion, not that we want to, they won’t disturb you,” he said during a press conference ahead of CPHM’s official launch.

He claimed Malaysians are also allowed to freely practice their religions at any location while Americans face difficulty even when wanting to pray.

“For the Christians, the Buddhist, the Hindus, you can build a shrine anywhere, you can open a church in any shop lot.

“You can even form a church without registration because the constitution allows you to practice your religion.

“Even in America, you can’t pray. So it just depends on which angle you look at,” he said.

He also noted that the debacle over the usage if the word Allah, an Arabic word that means god, in Bibles using Bahasa Malaysia has also been misinterpreted as an attempt to convert Muslims into Christianity, which it is not.

“I want to assure you that the accusation is actually not true. The church, as far as I know, never use the word Allah to preach the gospel,” he said.

“But the word Allah is used by our Bahasa Malaysia-speaking congregation to denote the god that they believe. So it’s not a tool for evangelism,” he added.

He further explained that the usage of the term was in no way an attempt to coerce others into Christianity.

“But I cannot deny the reality that sometimes overzealous Christians share the good news, every religion has this type of people, but by and large the Malaysian Christians are not extremists.

“We don’t coerce, some may out of enthusiasm, but generally they are peace-making,” he said.

This comes amid religious tensions silently brewing in Malaysia, with right-wing Muslim groups like Perkasa and the Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) pitting themselves against various interfaith groups.

The country’s minority groups have repeatedly lashed out at the authorities’ allegedly nonchalant responses to remarks issued by Muslim fundamentalists against the sensitivities of the non-Muslims here, insisting that their inaction have only emboldened these groups and others into inciting more violence and hatred.

Earlier this year, influential UK paper Financial Times columnist David Pilling had written that growing religious intolerance in Asian countries could turn into a “disaster” for the region.

He cited Malaysia as an example of yet another country with “hardening ideology” but did not elaborate on the disaster this might cause.

Malaysia also made international headlines when it banned a Catholic Church publication from using the word “Allah”, which is deemed here as exclusive to Muslims, as well as the seizure of Malay and Iban medium Bibles from the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) last year.

In April this year, a group of Muslims protested against a church’s hanging of a cross on its facade, claiming the symbol was a threat to them and their religious beliefs.

Source: www.themalaymailonline.com

June 4, 2015
Measures Are In Place To Prevent MERS Outbreak In Singapore

Local hospitals have been reminded to remain vigilant and to stand ready to screen and isolate individuals suspected to suffer from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Coronavirus, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Wednesday (Jun 3).

South Korea has confirmed five more cases of MERS, the Korean health ministry said early on Wednesday, bringing to 30 the total number of cases in the country of the often-deadly illness. All cases of infection in South Korea have been limited to household and hospital contacts among the patients, and all have been linked to the first identified case. Given this, the Health Ministry said there is no evidence of sustained community transmission in South Korea.

MOH revealed in a press release that three categories of patients with clinical signs or symptoms of pneumonia or severe respiratory infection with breathlessness, who travelled to the Middle East in the two weeks before onset, will be referred to any of its public and private hospitals for further evaluation to exclude the infection.

Patients from South Korea, and also those with fever and respiratory illness of any severity who had visited a healthcare facility while in the Middle East or South Korea will also be similarly referred, according to MOH.

Clinics said they will step up their precautionary measures on the Health Ministry’s advice.

“So when the situation gets worse, the Ministry of Health will tell us that we need to be vigilant and more alert about it,” said Dr Philip Koh, family physician at Healthway Tampines Clinic. “Then we will have to don our personal protective equipment, which is our masks, our gloves, and our goggles and basically the clinic will be turned into a pandemic centre of preparedness.”

“What happens is when a patient comes in, who is suspected of having fever, cough and breathlessness, will be attended to by a nurse donned with this personal protective equipment at the entrance,” added Dr Koh.

The Ministry said that temperature screening at air checkpoints for passengers arriving from the Middle East have been in place since May 18 last year. It said that health advisories continue to be in place at the local border checkpoints for travelers coming from and going to areas affected by MERS, and that screening may be ramped up to include passengers arriving from South Korea should evidence of sustained community spread turn up.

SIA HAS PLANS TO MINIMISE DISEASE SPREAD

Also on Wednesday, a Singapore Airlines (SIA) spokesperson assured that the national carrier has measures – “both on the ground and on board” – in place to “minimise the spread of diseases”. These include passenger screening by airport ground personnel.

“If any passenger appears to be unwell, he or she will be asked to see a doctor immediately. We will not carry any passenger whom we believe is a risk to others on board,” the spokesperson told Channel NewsAsia.

SIA added that it has developed standard operating procedures to handle various medical emergencies, including infectious diseases.

The airline said these measures “will be coupled with the health regulations implemented by local authorities”, citing cabin crew basic first-aid training as one of such measures.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

June 4, 2015
Singapore Travellers Have Stickiest Fingers, After Argentinians

Travellers from Singapore have “sticky fingers”, according to a survey by travel bookings website Hotels.com on guests pilfering items from hotel rooms.

The survey asked some 4,700 participants from 28 countries what they have taken from hotel rooms and never returned, with the exclusion of toiletries, because “everyone takes those”, said Hotels.com.

Seventy-one per cent of Singaporean respondents said they have taken items from their rooms, putting Singapore in second place on a list of nationalities most likely to steal from hotels. In first place was Argentina, with 73 per cent.

On the other end of the spectrum, Colombians were least likely to have taken something, with 69 per cent of participants claiming they have taken “nothing” from hotels.

A representative from Hotels.com said Argentina, Germany, Ireland, Singapore are the only countries that did not have taking “nothing” as their top answer.

But guests were not looting grand works of art or luxury bedsheets, according to the survey, which was conducted from March to April this year. Instead, 52 per cent of travellers brought home slippers, 35 per cent took stationery and 12 per cent took magazines or books.

Commenting on the survey findings, Mr Jacob Tomsky, author of the best-selling Heads in Beds, a account of the ten years he spent in the hotel industry, told the Telegraph: “No respectable hotelier is going to want to pry open your luggage and search for shampoo. We hope you take the amenities. We want you to use them later and think of us.”

Hotels TODAY contacted declined comment. Grand Hyatt Singapore however provided a list of items that guests can keep, including toiletries, slippers, and coffee and tea packets. Items like bath robes, yoga mats and towels on the other hand were for borrowing or purchase.

Mr Jeremy Hau, 22, confessed to keeping hotel room key cards as memorabilia of his travels around the United States. So far, he has collected around 40 key cards. “I want to keep it to remind myself of all the hotels I’ve stayed in so far,” said Mr Hau, who spent the last five months seeing different parts of the US with friends while on his university exchange programme.

Other Singaporeans travellers TODAY interviewed pointed to the “kiasu” mentality. Said teacher Benjamin Wong, 29: “It’s just that mindset that ‘I’m already paying so much, I want to maximise my money’s worth’”. He confessed to once having taken a towel, but only, because he really needed it. “Even for that towel, I was really worried when I was checking out,” he said. “I won’t go through that again.”

Mr Alan Soh, 48, pointed out that there may be an unseen price to these thefts. “If everyone (steals), hotel rates can only go up … someone has to pay, and definitely the hotels are not going to pay for it,” said Mr Soh, who travels twice a month for his work in the trading industry.

Here is a list of the top 10 items stolen from hotels:

1) Towels/Linen
2) Batteries/Light
3) Food/Drinks
4) Cutlery
5) Picture Frames
6) Artwork
7) Curtains
8) Kettle
9) Books
10) Bible

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

June 4, 2015
Singapore Set To Benefit From Increased Demand For Islamic Financial Services In Asia

Industrial real estate investment trust (REIT) Sabana is the largest Islamic REIT globally, in terms of assets – and it is based in Singapore. Overall, shariah-compliant assets under management here have risen by 22 per cent since 2010, while banking assets have grown by more than 73 per cent. This is expected to grow further, as more Islamic funds in the Gulf seek foreign investment opportunities, particularly in Asia.

Speaking at the 6th World Islamic Banking Conference Asia Summit on Wednesday (Jun 3), Ms Jacqueline Loh, Deputy Managing Director at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said: “GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) banks have already been expanding their operations in Singapore in recent years to support the deployment of Islamic funds to corporates in the region, through Islamic bank financing, and sukuk issuances.”

She added: “The asset-backed nature of Islamic finance makes sukuk ideal for financing of infrastructure projects and would complement ongoing work by Singapore to enhance the bankability of infrastructure projects in the region and involve more capital market participants.”

Sukuks are securities that are similar to bonds but they comply with the Islamic law. In the past five years, there were 31 sukuk issuances in Singapore – more than in other conventional jurisdictions, with total outstanding issuance reaching a high of S$3.8 billion in 2014, compared to S$440 million in 2009.

Industry participants said growth in this segment can help support the financing needs in the region. In particular, an estimated US$60 billion will be needed annually until 2022 for basic infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia.

Growing infrastructure needs and cross border trade and investments are expected to drive demand for Islamic finance in ASEAN. Observers said markets in the region are well-positioned to meet the rising demand, and stock exchanges are working together to capture these opportunities.

Said Bursa Malaysia chief Tajuddin Atan: “Growth of the global Muslim population coupled with increase of global HNWI have been a factor to the rising demand for Islamic finance services and wealth management. Importantly, the ASEAN region will need to mobilise these funds.

“With this interesting fund size, the developmenSt of ASEAN economies, the infrastructure needs and the cross border activities in trade and finance, the outlook of future demand for Islamic finance industry, to me, remains bright,” he added. “It is expected to almost double or grow by 98 per cent by 2018 to bridge the demand for Islamic finance and to support mobilisation of funds in Southeast Asia alone.”

Mr Tajuddin said this will bring up the question of product innovation, to preserve and grow the wealth of the Asian and ASEAN population: “So what the exchanges of ASEAN have done so far … Malaysia together with SGX, the Singapore stock exchange, and stock exchange of Thailand have collaborated in developing the ASEAN exchanges to facilitate more efficient cross border trading among ASEAN.”

In 2012, the Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand stock exchanges established the ASEAN trading link, to allow investors easier access to each other’s markets.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

June 4, 2015