Japanese media has reported that the authorities are looking to ban the 2019 movie Joker from TV after the recent rise in copycat crimes.
Many of the crimes were inspired by the scene where the Joker, played by Joaquin Phoenix, killed three people on the subway.
Two weeks ago on Halloween (Oct 31), a 24-year-old man dressed like the Joker was arrested after stabbing random passengers on a Keio Line train in Tokyo.
He also set a train carriage on fire after attacking passengers. A total of 17 people required medical treatment for knife wounds or smoke inhalation following his rampage.
Twitter user @takahashi9811 posted a video of the assailant on the train before the attack, and the clip showed him holding a knife in his right hand while smoking a cigarette with his left.
Since then, authorities have been on “high alert” for similar crimes.
On Nov 8, a 69-year-old man was arrested for allegedly starting a fire on a Kyushu bullet train. He said he “wanted to mimic” the Oct 31 attack.
Concerns about safety have been raised by the Japanese, many of whom ride the train daily.
Earlier this year, a Russian court is reported to have banned anime series Death Note, Tokyo Ghoul and Inuyashiki for featuring “cruelty, murder and violence” and there was worry that consumption of such content would “incite violence in teenagers”.
Singapore: Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told APEC leaders on Friday that as people learn to live with COVID-19, international cooperation is the “key” to help the Asia-Pacific region recover and build a stronger economy (November 12) .
He was speaking at the APEC Leaders’ Meeting, which was hosted by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and held in a virtual way.
In his speech, Mr. Lee praised New Zealand’s outstanding leadership as the chair of APEC, saying that it “inspires us to cooperate during the pandemic.”
He also emphasized that measures should be taken to help the Asia-Pacific region recover, starting with the gradual reopening of borders.
“Now our vaccination is being carried out at a steady rate, which can be done safely,” he said. “Many economies have introduced travel routes for vaccinated passengers and are eager to expand this range.”
He added that Singapore has already done so with several APEC economies, including one with Malaysia soon.
However, he said that there will be a complication between economies that have adopted the “zero COVID” strategy and those that have transitioned to coexist with the virus.
“Between these two groups of economies, strict border measures will be inevitable for some time to come,” he said.
“Nevertheless, we must recognize the importance of reopening our borders: rebuilding our economy, supporting our business, especially in the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) and tourism sectors, and enabling families to reconnect. “
He added that APEC is “a good platform for sharing ideas and best practices on how to safely reopen borders”.
Mr. Lee also encouraged economies to accelerate the mutual recognition of digital health certificates and continue to interact with the business community through the APEC Business Advisory Committee.
Second, APEC should strengthen the reliability of the supply chain, he said.
“The pandemic has prompted economies to re-examine the resilience of their supply chains, including onshore production chains and means to strengthen network reliability,” said Mr. Lee.
“But in doing so, we should not go to extremes. The government will play an active role in intervening to strengthen the supply chain.
“But in many cases, free markets and globalization will actually produce reliable, diversified and efficient supply networks, which are more responsive and economical than direct state intervention.”
Mr. Lee added that the economies should also “work together to maintain the resilience and openness of the supply chain.”
He said: “We need to develop strong connectivity to ensure seamless trade flows.” “Even during a crisis, trust can be built by keeping cross-border goods and services unimpeded.”
Lee Hsien Loong pointed out that APEC economies have shown solidarity and made good progress.
He cited the “Declaration on Promoting the Circulation of Basic Commodities” adopted in July last year and the statement on the COVID-19 vaccine supply chain reached this year as examples.
“In addition to the crisis, our support for multilateral institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and trade liberalization should be complemented by an open emphasis on supply chain resilience,” he said.
Third, APEC members should deepen regional economic integration.
He said: “APEC members have taken encouraging steps to realize the vision of the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area.”
These include the “Trans-Pacific Partnership Comprehensive Progress Agreement” and the “Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement” (RCEP) and other agreements.
The RCEP is composed of a “large” number of APEC members, accounting for 30% of the global gross domestic product (GDP), and will take effect on January 1.
“We should further advance the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area on the basis of these major plans,” he said.
Mr. Li said that the economy must also “look to the future and seize opportunities in new growth areas.”
He emphasized that the digital economy is such an area, and pointed out that it has “huge economic potential.”
“By 2025, the annual ICT (information and communication technology) expenditure in the Asia-Pacific region will exceed US$1 trillion,” he said. “In Southeast Asia alone, the Internet economy is expected to exceed US$300 billion per year.”
He added that economies must support their businesses and people in the transformation.
He said: “We need to invest in improving the skills of our workforce and prepare them for the digital age.” “We need to build a public digital infrastructure to promote greater interoperability between economies. We need to adjust us Digital rules and standards to facilitate cross-border data flows.
“APEC members should strengthen cooperation in the field of digital economy and strive to reach a regional digital economy agreement (DEA).”
There is a DEA between Singapore and Australia, and there is a Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) between Chile, New Zealand and Singapore.
Mr. Lee said that one way to reach a regional digital agreement is to expand the existing DEPA.
“Alternatively, we can develop a new agreement with a wider range of members. These two approaches are not mutually exclusive and can become the cornerstone of a larger regional or global digital architecture,” he said.
Mr. Lee also emphasized that climate change and green economy are an important area, saying that climate change is a “complex problem without simple solutions.”
He added that there are opportunities for cooperation, such as low-carbon solutions, and new capabilities in areas such as green finance and carbon trading services.
“APEC can become an incubator for new ideas, pioneering innovative solutions and establishing common rules and standards in a green economy,” he said.
“Singapore has launched our Green Plan 2030 and is discussing green economy agreements with like-minded partners.
“We are happy to share our experience and learn from others to improve our lives, strengthen our interdependence, and create prosperity, stability and peace in the Asia-Pacific region.”
Singapore: In the waters near the southeastern tip of Singapore, “trouble” is brewing.
The Singapore Maritime Crisis Center (SMCC) is composed of different agencies such as the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) and the Police Coast Guard (PCG). It is responsible for detecting and responding to maritime security threats and marking a chemical tanker heading for Singapore to show Called abnormal behavior.
SMCC observed that this particular tanker had disappeared from conventional shipping channels earlier, but then reappeared, raising the suspicion that it might be hijacked.
Even more worrying is that the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA), another SMCC agency, detected explosive cargo in the tanker’s manifest.
RSN and PCG sent a littoral mission ship and interceptor boat to escort the tanker. At a nearby base, elite operators from the Special Operations Task Force (SOTF) are on standby.
Suspicious oil tankers were escorted to specific anchorages far away from the mainland for inspection, while marine reserves diverted traffic to different waterways. The RSN boarding team climbed onto the tanker to determine intent.
Instead, the crew of the tanker pulled out their guns, and an exchange of fire broke out. SMCC declared the ship a hostile ship, and the special operations task force soldiers on the speedboat and the Republic of Singapore Air Force Super Puma helicopter were released.
Before the threat was lifted, the soldiers tied ropes to the tanker. Then there was a fire, probably due to gunfire on the ship. The Singapore Civil Defence Force activated a special fire boat to extinguish the fire.
Finally, the MPA tugboat towed the tanker away, avoiding a potentially devastating crisis on Singaporean soil.
Intelligence collected by SMCC shows that terrorists intend to crash the tanker into a key facility on Jurong Island as part of a larger strategy to attack US allies in the region.
This scenario is part of the peak exercise in 2021, which was held from Monday (November 8) to Friday to test inter-agency coordination to eliminate threats and block sea lanes in severe maritime security situations.
Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean visited RSS Singapore-Changi Naval Base on Friday to observe the exercise and listen to the progress of the SMCC.
The exercise is a biennial event, because the threat of terrorism to Singapore is still high, and attacks from the sea cannot be ruled out.
IMPROVED SENSE-MAKING SYSTEM This is why SMCC was established in 2011 and is usually the brain behind maritime security operations, such as the role played during the Highcrest exercise, hoping to better complete its work.
The Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) stated at a press conference on Friday that the center is developing a next-generation perception system to improve its ability to “as soon as possible and as far away as possible” from Singapore’s maritime security threats.
The system will be fully put into use in the middle of next year.
“The system uses real-time links to the national maritime safety agency database and information collected from shipping industry stakeholders to detect and flag ships with abnormal behavior in real time,” MINDEF said.
“With the evolution of threat scenarios, ship data has been continuously improved to discover potential maritime security threats, with almost no obvious signs.”
These threat assessments are then shared with national maritime safety agencies so that they can decide on related operational responses.
SMCC has done similar things by integrating information from national intelligence agencies, think tanks, and commercial maritime stakeholders, so as to be able to coordinate and multi-level responses to identified threats.
For example, the center coordinates maritime security operations during high-profile events held near coastal areas, such as the National Day military parade and the 2018 Trump-Kim summit, when the two leaders met in Sentosa.
In 2019, SMCC’s meaning building system successfully marked a ship carrying a crew member who posted radical religious messages on social media.
The security forces board the ship to ensure that the crew is not malicious, and the immigration and checkpoint bureau prohibits the crew from disembarking.
QUICKER DETECTION OF SUSPICIOUS SHIPS The next-generation perception system will provide a more comprehensive, automated and real-time threat assessment to improve situational awareness and decision-making capabilities.
It automatically ingests and integrates maritime information from more sources, including proprietary entire government systems, commercial platforms, and publicly available ship data.
These sources include surveillance cameras belonging to Home Team organizations, and commercial multinational maritime information sharing platforms.
The system then uses data analysis and a technique called entity resolution to match the data with the correct ship, and then uses it to detect signs of suspicion.
Some signs involve ships that have widely deviated from the course, or those crew members who fail to submit the required documents before entering Singapore waters.
“Some sources did not perform fact-checking on the data, including the names or numbers entered,” said Mr. Tan Yangzhi, project manager of the National Defense Science and Technology Agency, which has jointly developed the system with DSO National Laboratory.
“But the entity resolution algorithm allows us to match (even if the data) contains misspellings or missing numbers.”
Once a ship is marked in the system, its interface (showing the outline of Singapore surrounded by thousands of points representing the ship) will display a pop-up window prompting SMCC personnel to look at the ship more carefully.
They can check the cause of the trigger by looking at the different data sets on board. This information is shared with different maritime safety agencies who see the same picture, and they can then decide on the appropriate response.
Colonel Desmond Low, head of the SMCC National Maritime Perception Team (COL), said that this approach will reduce the time required for a single ship to conduct a threat assessment from a few hours to a few minutes.
He said that in the past, SMCC operators had to manually insert some data into the old system, and due to the large amount of data, some analysis also needed to be done manually in batches.
EVOLVING THREATS AND TECHNOLOGY Mr. Teo told reporters on Friday that the next-generation system uses data analysis to “try to detect possible threat patterns earlier.”
“So when they approach our coast, you can be prepared to investigate them further and make sure they don’t present themselves as a threat,” he said.
Mr. Teo pointed out that Singapore is located on one of the busiest waterways in the world, with many ships calling at Singapore’s ports and “close to our land.”
He added: “Therefore, we must be prepared for different types of threats, and they are constantly evolving.”
For example, chemical ships can act as floating time bombs, medium passenger ships can transport terrorists, and smaller ships can be used to hit targets.
“In order to maintain a leading position in the ever-changing threat environment, the system will continue to be upgraded to integrate more data sources and take advantage of the latest developments in data analysis,” MINDEF said.
COL Low stated that the next-generation system was first developed at the end of 2016, and SMCC used its earlier version in 2017.
He said that it has been continuously improving over the years and is currently in the final stages of integration and testing.
“Test the different incoming data streams, analysis tools-to make sure we get the correct answers-and some built-in security systems,” he added.
“Because this will be used with our maritime security partners, one of our main concerns is also cyber security… and protecting important data.”
Singapore: The police stated in a press release that the former CEO of Parknall International and two directors of coffee shop operator Kimly were charged in court on Friday (November 12) for disclosing violations.
Ong Eng Sing, the 46-year-old former CEO of Baijia International, was charged with three counts of failing to disclose his indirect interests in transactions with Baijia International.
Chia Cher Khiang and Lim Hee Kiat are both charged with one count of failing to notify the Singapore Exchange (SGX) of Kimly’s announcement of the acquisition of the beverage company Asian Story Corporation (ASC) on July 2, 2018.
The police stated that the acquisition was allegedly a stakeholder transaction and should have been disclosed in accordance with SGX’s Catalist rules, but this is not the case.
As Kimly’s executive chairman, Lim was further charged with one count of failing to disclose his indirect interest in the acquisition.
According to court documents, Lim has partial beneficial ownership of ASC.
Chia received bail of S$50,000 and Lim received bail of S$70,000.
Allegedly, Ong, a former director of Pokka International and Pokka Corporation (Singapore), has partial beneficial ownership of ASC.
Allegedly, when ASC entered into transactions with two Pokka entities, Ong failed to disclose its interests to Pokka International and Pokka Corporation on three occasions.
According to court documents, at some point in 2010, in the distribution agreement between Pokka International and ASC, he did not disclose his interest.
Allegedly, in the manufacturing agreement signed by the two companies on August 1, 2016, Ong also failed to disclose his interests.
Sometime around November to December 2017, the two companies reached an agreement on a distribution framework and ASC will supply Etika products to Pokka International. The latter will distribute products in Singapore’s general trade channels.
According to court documents, the former CEO allegedly failed to disclose that ASC was a company in which he had partial beneficial ownership.
If the acquisition is not disclosed as a stakeholder transaction, they may be sentenced to up to seven years in prison, a fine of up to S$250,000, or both.
If they fail to disclose their interests with the company, offenders may face up to 12 months in jail or a fine of up to S$5,000.
Singapore: Although the four-year-old Muhammad Ali Zafir Mohamed Azmi was still active when he went to the nursery on the morning of October 29, when he returned home that afternoon, he complained that he was tired.
Ali had a fever of 38.8 degrees Celsius, and his body temperature dropped after taking the antipyretic ibuprofen. But his mother Marilyn Kakanindin said that his body temperature rose again and remained above 38 degrees Celsius.
Other symptoms, including his involuntary convulsions in his sleep, bruising on his hands and feet, and stomach pain soon appeared.
“He asked me, ummi (mummy), can you massage my stomach? My stomach hurts,” Ms. Cacanindin said, adding that he was also cold.
Five members of the family — Mr. Mohamed Azmi Lendang and his wife Ms. Cacanindin, as well as Ali and his two elder brothers and sisters — contracted COVID-19 and recovered in September. The youngest daughter, one year old, their domestic helper did not contract the disease.
Since the rapid antigen test result was negative, she did not suspect that Ali was infected with the coronavirus again.
Even after going to the general practitioner’s clinic, Ali did not get better, and Ms. Cacanindin asked her husband to send their son to the hospital.
After being admitted to the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH), Ali moved from the highly dependent ward to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where he was intubated.
The doctor diagnosed him as having Childhood Multiple System Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C), a rare disease that affects some children in the weeks following COVID-19 infection.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) stated on Saturday (November 6) that since the beginning of the pandemic last year, 4 cases of MIS-C have been detected in more than 8,000 pediatric COVID-19 cases in Singapore.
All cases were admitted to hospital in October or November. Except for Ali, other MIS-C cases include two boys aged 3 and 8 years old and a two-month-old baby girl.
Of the four, only Ali is still in the hospital.
On Monday, Dr. Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State of the Ministry of Health, stated at a press conference that a fifth case of MIS-C had been found, but he did not provide further details.
According to the Ministry of Health, the symptoms of MIS-C include a persistent fever exceeding 38.5 degrees Celsius for three days or more. The Ministry of Health added that other symptoms include difficulty breathing, headache, neck swelling, skin rash, swelling of hands and feet, conjunctivitis, diarrhea or abdominal pain.
An international review report in May last year stated that among all children with COVID-19, the incidence of MIS-C was 0.14%, or 14 out of 10,000 cases.
“The manifestation of MIS-C is similar to Kawasaki disease. Kawasaki disease is related to various viral or bacterial infections. It occurs in 150 to 200 children every year in Singapore,” the Ministry of Health said.
In addition to intubation, Ali also took various drugs and placed it on the ventilator for a week. Since then, he has left the ventilator and is still receiving physical therapy in the intensive care unit.
His parents said his condition is now “stable but fragile”, adding that the doctor has not notified them when Ali is expected to recover.
Ms. Cacanindin praised the hospital staff for their efforts to treat Ali, talked with him gently and made sure he was comfortable.
“The doctors and nurses treated him very well, and they were very professional in dealing with Ali,” she said.
Ms. Cacanindin and Mr. Azmi said that they hope that by sharing Ali’s story, other parents will know what to pay attention to if their children are affected by MIS-C.
Ms. Cacanindin also shared Ali’s experience on her Facebook page, which has been shared more than 300 times as of Tuesday night.
She said that Ali’s brothers and sisters miss him very much, and they often ask if they can talk to him and look at his photos or videos.
“They are very worried because they are very close,” she said. “We just want him to recover. Many people are praying for him.”
