SINGAPORE – A 49-year-old Singaporean man and a 36-year-old Vietnamese woman have been sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for entering into a marriage of convenience. The middlemen who assisted their arrangement have also been jailed and fined.
The 49-year-old, Lee Poh Chiew, was introduced to 36-year-old Nguyen through a couple, 39-year-old Singaporean, Cheong Mun Siong and his Vietnamese wife, 31-year-old Tran Thi Cam Nhung.
In 2014, Nguyen had told her friend Tran that she would like to remain and work in Singapore.
To help prolong Nguyen’s stay here, Tran informed Nguyen that her husband Cheong had a friend who could enter into a marriage of convenience with her and sponsor her Visit Pass application. In return, Nguyen agreed to pay Cheong $8,000 in three cash instalments.
Cheong’s friend, Lee, was keen to make easy money and agreed to the arrangement.
On Nov 21, 2014, the “marriage” between Nguyen and Lee took place where Cheongwas one of the witnesses. Nguyen paid Lee $1,100 and a monthly sum of $400 after the “marriage”. In return, Lee acted as the local sponsor for her Visit Pass application.
Lee and Nguyen were arrested by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers on April 27, 2015. They were each sentenced to six months’ imprisonment on May 18, 2015 for entering into a marriage of convenience.
Cheong and Tran were arrested on Jan 6, 2016 and were convicted on April 17 this year for arranging the marriage for Lee and Nguyen. Cheong was sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment and fined $8,000 in default of four weeks’ imprisonment while Tran was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.
In a statement on Monday (April 24), ICA says it takes a serious view of individuals who circumvent the system to obtain immigration facilities in Singapore.
The penalties for the offence are a fine not exceeding $10,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years, or both. ICA says will continue to take firm enforcement action against errant couples and middlemen.
Singapore’s leading news brand developed the refreshed site and app over 12 months with extensive input from readers, viewers, listeners and advertisers.
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SINGAPORE: Channel NewsAsia has launched the most extensive upgrade of its digital platforms in more than a decade – the first phase of a series of enhancements that will be rolled out over the next nine months.
The refreshed site, as well as apps for tablet and mobile devices, were developed over 12 months with extensive input from readers, viewers, listeners and advertisers, parent company Mediacorp said in a statement on Monday (Apr 24).
New features are being introduced in phases, with this first phase delivering a contemporary and intuitive design that makes it easier to find interesting content, a compact view with fewer images for faster and low-data browsing and a brand new Asian Voices section, featuring opinions from local and regional thought leaders and commentators about the most important issues facing Asia.
The improvements are a response to the needs of Channel NewsAsia’s fast-growing audience. In the last 12 months, Channel NewsAsia’s website and apps attracted nearly four million unique visitors each month from Singapore, and nearly 2.5 million from around the world. It now has the largest social media following of any Singapore news brand, with over 2.5 million Facebook and Twitter followers, who generate over 12 million video views each month.
“This is the most extensive upgrade of Channel NewsAsia’s digital platforms in over a decade. The enhancements, which will be rolled out in phases over the next nine months, will significantly improve the news consumption experience and our engagement with our audiences,” said Mediacorp Editor-in-Chief Walter Fernandez.
“In designing our new digital experience, we listened closely to our audience and carefully analysed their habits, especially how they use their mobile devices to consume news. We also studied what has worked in other global newsrooms.”
The investment in Channel NewsAsia’s digital platforms is also part of Mediacorp’s ongoing commitment to provide advertisers in Singapore and globally with high-quality digital advertising opportunities they can rely on and trust.
Mediacorp Chief Commercial and Digital Officer Parminder Singh said: “Mediacorp already has some of the very best independently verified, brand safe and highly targeted advertising products in the region.
“The digital transformation roadmap for Channel NewsAsia will deliver more enhanced features and exclusive content to help our audiences understand Asia. We are already gathering and analysing the responses of users to this first phase and will work at progressively delivering a better experience for our audiences and higher-value opportunities for brands.”
Mediacorp’s growing digital team developed the refreshed site and apps together with VML Singapore (a WPP agency) and Aperto AG (an IBM company). The companies were awarded the project following a competitive global pitch.
Animal welfare groups are prepared to make shocking finds. After all, they look into cases of neglect and abuse all the time.
However, even all their experience could not have prepared the members of three animal welfare groups for what they would find in a flat in Tampines.
The president of one of the groups called Voices For Animals (VFA), Derrick Tan, posted on Facebook that there were over 100 mice and 23 rabbits inside the flat, occupied by an elderly mother and son.
Neighbours had reported the issue to town council, who had sought the assistance of VFA, House Rabbits Society and Bunny Wonderland (BW).
Tan said in his post that the duo had started with three mice, which had multiplied to over 100 over the years.
Despite the combined efforts of all the groups, they were unable to round up all the mice and rabbits as the animals could easily avoid them.
This forced the groups to call pest control to step in, However, as the rabbits and mice are not pests, but the result of negligence, the groups are putting them up for adoption.
A post shared by Amber Heard (@amberheard) on Apr 23, 2017 at 5:11pm PDT
Despite our cold dead hearts, we’re stoked that Amberlon (or Ambermusk…Amblon, maybe?) are an official thing, and they have no qualms letting the world know about it.
An international publisher has retracted 107 research papers by Chinese authors, after finding out that the reports had been “compromised.”
The articles were published by the Springer Nature publishing company in the journal Tumor Biology, between 2012 and 2016.
The publisher said it found that the papers, which are required to be peer-reviewed, had been submitted to reviewers who had fake email addresses.
“We are retracting these published papers because the peer review process required for publication in our journals had been deliberately compromised by fabricated peer reviewer reports,” Springer Nature said in a statement on RetractionWatch.com.
The articles were submitted with the names of real researchers, but fabricated email addresses, Peter Butler, editorial director at Springer Nature for cell biology and biochemistry, was quoted in a report by state-run China Daily.
After investigating and following up with the real reviewers, the latters confirmed to Springer Nature that they did not do the peer review.
The authors involved in the incident all hail from Chinese organisations, with a large majority of the articles involving research in the field of cancer.
Scammers are impersonating the Traffic Police to cheat their victims into paying “fines” using their credit cards, the police say.
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SINGAPORE: The police have been alerted about fake emails from scammers impersonating the Traffic Police, they said on Monday (Apr 24).
In a news release, the police said the email would typically claim that the recipient needed to pay a parking fine and appear in court. It would also provide a link to a website and a phone number to call to pay the “fine” via credit card.
A screenshot of a fake email by scammers impersonating the Traffic Police. (Image: Singapore Police Force)
The police clarified that no Government agency will ask for payment through a telephone call, especially to a third party’s bank account.
The website and phone number do not belong to the Singapore Police Force (SPF), and the email was not disseminated by authorities, it said.
The authority also advised members of the public to take precautions such as ignoring the emails, avoiding clicking any links or giving out personal information and bank details and calling the police hotline at 1800-255-0000 if in doubt.
Those seeking scam-related advice may also call the anti-scam helpline (1800-722-6688) or visit the scam alert website, police added.
This is the latest variant of scams involving the impersonation of police officers. Earlier this month, the police also warned about a scam involving a fake SPF website.
A police official was hurt when alleged Chhatra League activists hurled stones targeting the motorcade of Fisheries and Livestock Minister Sayedul Haque amid stringent security in Bijoynagar upazila of Brahmanbaria yesterday.
With injuries to his head and forehead, Officer-in-Charge Imtiaz Ahmed of Nabinagar Police Station was taken to Brahmanbaria Sadar Hospital.
The incident took place around 1:00pm near the upazila’s Chandura Bus Stand on Dhaka-Sylhet highway after the minister left a programme venue.
The district administration on Saturday midnight imposed section 144 in four upazilas — Brahmanbaria sadar, Ashuganj, Bijoynagar and Sorail — after local Awami League called hartal ahead of the minister’s visit.
Leaders and activists of local AL and its affiliated bodies in Bijoynagar became furious and enforced hartal after they came to know that lawmaker Obaidul Muktadir of Brahmanbaria-3 constituency was not invited to the minister’s programme.
The administration deployed two platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh and members of the Rapid Action Battalion and Armed Police Battalion and additional 150 policemen in Bijoynagar for security.
Additional District Magistrate in Brahmanbaria Mohammad Shahanur Alam said section 144 was imposed from 6:00am to 12:00midnight as tension brewed ahead of the minister’s visit.
Activists of local Awami League took positions at several points in Chandura, defying section 144. When the minister’s motorcade was passing by, agitated Chhatra League activists tried to bring out a procession holding up shoes, said Ali Arshad, officer-in-charge of Bijoynagar police.
At that time law enforcers tried to stop them. As the protestors hurled stones, OC Imtiaz suffered injuries.
Meanwhile, Minister Sayedul attended an event at Champak Nagar of Bijoynagar where he inaugurated Upazila Livestock Hospital around noon.
Followers of local Lawmaker Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury had taken positions near the clinic and staged a demonstration chanting slogans against the minister, reports our correspondent who was present there.
On Thursday, they held a press conference where they announced a boycott of the minister’s event and called for dawn-to-dusk hartal. The next day Chhatra League activists allegedly beat up the upazila livestock officer and vandalised his office.
The central Chhatra League yesterday suspended the functioning of its Brahmanbaria unit due to its involvement in the chaos centring on the minister’s visit.
The government is deploying 40,000 security and emergency personnel to thwart any local or international terror threat to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Manila this week, government officials said on Sunday.
Ambassador Marciano A. Paynor Jr., director general for operations of the ASEAN 2017 National Organizing Council, said the government did not want a repeat of recent terror attacks in Western capitals in Manila during the summit from April 26 to 29.
“We can no longer consider only domestic security issues. As we all know, European capitals-London, Paris, Brussels-they all have had very serious terrorist attacks,” Paynor said.
“We have been lucky thus far. We would not want any of these … happening here, especially if we have guests and especially as we are hosting these ASEAN meetings throughout the year,” he said.
No threat
Department of the Interior and Local Government officer in charge Catalino Cuy said no specific threat against the summit had been monitored so far.
“But we are paid to be paranoid in our preparations,” he said. “We consider all possible threats to activities.”
Cuy said the government did not expect Abu Sayyaf bandits to reach Bohol from their bases in southwest
Mindanao.
“We always consider that possible threat and we’ve included that in our planning. We have set contingencies in case we monitor any threat like that as we approach the activity here in Manila,” Cuy said.
Paynor, Cuy and Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa spoke before 9,000 policemen, soldiers and emergency personnel who would secure the summit at a sendoff ceremony in Rizal Park on Sunday morning.
Target: ‘Zero incident’
Dela Rosa said the target was to have “zero incidents” during the summit and joked that he would have participating soldiers and policemen shave their heads if something bad happened.
Paynor appealed to citizens to immediately report to the police any suspicious activity in their areas during the summit.
“Each individual citizen is an added pair of eyes and ears. So, it is our duty as citizens to report anything that is out of the ordinary. Please approach the nearest officer and we will determine if it is a cause for concern,” he said.
Paynor said around 2,000 ASEAN delegates were expected to attend the ASEAN summit.
He noted that the summit, which will be attended by all the leaders of the 10 ASEAN countries, is just the 56th of the 139 meetings scheduled in Manila this year.
“As we said earlier, this is only meeting No. 56. There are a total of 139 meetings, so we have two-thirds more to come and every single one of these meetings we treat the same,” he added.
Aung San Suu Kyi coming
Paynor said the ASEAN countries had already confirmed that their heads of state would attend the summit except for Burma (Myanmar), which would send State Counselor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
“Myanmar has always designated Aung San Suu Kyi as the representative of Myanmar in these multilateral meetings,” Paynor said.
“Madame Aung San who is higher than a minister and lower than head of state or head of government but she is designated head of delegation of Myanmar so we elevate her to the same level as the other heads of state and government,” he added.
Paynor said the government would try its best not to cause discomfort to travellers and motorists during the summit.
He said the emergency “notice to airmen” grounding airplanes for an hour and a half during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in 2015 would not be implemented “in the same way” during the ASEAN summit.
“As much as possible, we are trying to avoid a repeat of that situation. The leaders will have priority landing and taking off but all other commercial flights should not be affected as much as possible,” he said.
SINGAPORE: Rail operator SMRT on Monday (Apr 24) said plans to renew and upgrade its ageing rail network over the past few years have seen “steady results”. Acknowledging a recent string of delays on the North South and East West Lines as well as some “teething problems” accompanying the introduction of a new signaling system in March, the company added that there was “some way to go to be best in class in the world”.
Speaking to the media at the company’s first official rail reliability briefing after delisting from the Singapore Exchange in October last year, SMRT CEO Desmond Kuek said: “Our assets have mostly reached end-of-life, others (are) in need of a midlife upgrade. This is not unexpected, as this year we are marking our 30th year of MRT operations.
“When all our systems have been renewed, and with a comprehensive preventive and predictive maintenance regime in place, we can look forward to higher system resilience, and even better train reliability and availability,” he added.
Together with Managing Director of Trains Lee Ling Wee, Mr Kuek on Monday gave an update on SMRT’s various plans and projects to improve train performance.
RAIL RELIABILITY
Based on SMRT statistics – which measures the number of kilometres trains clock before a delay of more than five minutes occurs – overall rail reliability improved for the North-South and Circle Lines, but not for the East-West Line over the past year.
From March 2016 to March 2017, trains on the North-South Line travelled an average of 180,000 km before a delay of five minutes or more, compared to 155,821km, 121,471,km and 90,818km in 2016, 2015, and 2014 respectively.
Trains on the Circle Line clocked 282,000 km before such a delay, higher than 2016’s 228,000 km.
East-West Line trains travelled an average of 145,000km before a delay, similar to 144,913 in 2016. Mr Kuek said this was due to the line “lagging behind” the North-South Line in terms of renewal works. Re-signalling works on the North-South Line have been completed, but this will only be done on the East-West Line in 2018.
SMRT employees conducting maintenance and repair works. (Photo: Kenneth Lim)
In 2016, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan gave operators an average of 400,000 km before a delay, by 2018.
MAJOR DISRUPTIONS
There was a major disruption on the NSEWL in the first quarter of this year, after additional time needed to replace a switch rail between Joo Koon and Pioneer MRT stations caused congestion and a service delay of more than 30 minutes – the benchmark authorities use for a “major disruption.”
According to SMRT statistics, there were four major disruptions on the North-South Line and five on the East-West Line in 2016, five on the North South Line and three on the East-West Line in 2015. Since 2011, the bulk of major disruptions were caused by power issues, and “chiefly due to parts of the rail network awaiting replacement,” Mr Kuek said, referring to items such as track circuits and train parts.
RENEWAL AND UPGRADES
Mr Kuek and Mr Lee also gave a progress update on SMRT’s rail renewal projects, including resignalling works, sleeper and power rail replacements, as well as the delivery of new trains.
In December 2016, SMRT replaced 188,000 wooden sleepers with more durable concrete ones on both the North South and East West Lines. Replacement works on the Third Rail, which powers the trains, and other track works are expected to be completed by May 2017.
SMRT has conducted trials with the upgraded signalling system on Sundays since March. It aims to shorten the intervals between trains through a new communication system – reducing waiting time for commuters. But there have been several issues so far, including platform screen doors not closing.
Maintenance and repair works in progress. (Photo: Kenneth Lim)
“There will be teething problems,” Mr Lee said. “But this will not be a show-stopper.”
SMRT intends to gradually increase the number of trains during the Sunday trials, he added.
The trial also featured the first of 57 new trains on the North South and East West Lines, which will be put into service by 2019, SMRT said. Refurbished Siemens trains will also be introduced by this year.
IS SMRT SELLING ITS TAXI BUSINESS?
In his concluding remarks, Mr Kuek said SMRT would continue working with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) as the company “broadens its urban mobility portfolio”. Last week, the Straits Times reported that SMRT was in talks to sell its taxi business with private hire operator Grab. When asked to confirm the deal, Mr Kuek said: “I can’t comment on market speculation and rumours with regards to this.”
“You do know that we have a very good partnership with Grab, with Strides, our private-hire services as well as with our taxi business, and we continue to look for all sorts of ways to partner and co-operate with them,” he said.
