TOKYO – Japan rescued 26 North Koreans after they abandoned their sinking cargo vessel in the East China Sea, the coast guard said Thursday.
Japan Coast Guard patrol boats plucked the ship’s entire crew out of the water in the early hours of the morning after they had abandoned the vessel and taken to life boats.
A distress signal was received Wednesday from the 6,558-tonne Chong Gen which began sinking about 60 kilometres (37 miles) southwest of Fukue island in Nagasaki prefecture, the spokesman said.
The ship finally sank before dawn some 27 kilometres from the island.
The coast guard cited the crew as saying the ship was transporting rice from North Korea’s port of Nampo on its west coast to the east coast city of Wonsan.
That route entails travelling around the southern end of the Korean peninsula.
“We rescued all the crew members safely and no one was injured,” the coast guard spokesman said.
“We are investigating the cause of the accident by interviewing them on our patrol ship offshore,” he added.
The spokesman said no decision has been made on what to do with the crew as the two countries have no diplomatic relations.
Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Director Ronald Dela Rosa stretches as he attends a senate hearing in Manila on September 15, 2016.
Rodrigo Duterte shot dead a justice department employee and ordered the murder of opponents, a former death squad member told parliament September 15, in explosive allegations against the Philippine president. / AFP PHOTO / NOEL CELIS
MANILA – The Philippine police chief on Thursday warned an “idiot” policeman accused of kidnapping a South Korean businessman that he would die unless he surrendered.
The businessman disappeared from his home in the northern city of Angeles in October last year, with the kidnappers demanding a ransom for his release, authorities said.
Police said earlier this week an officer with an anti-drug taskforce was suspected of involvement, that he had been placed under “restrictive custody” and that criminal charges would be filed against him.
But police chief Ronald Dela Rosa revealed Thursday the accused officer had not been detained as part of his “restrictive custody”. He said the policeman was meant to just report to his officers, but that he had stopped doing so and gone missing.
“I hope you surrender because if you don’t, you will really die. You son of whore, you will die if you do not surrender,” Dela Rosa said in an interview with DZMM radio.
The case has drawn criticism from some lawmakers and local media as an example of corrupt policemen expanding their illegal activities after being given freedoms by President Rodrigo Duterte to prosecute his war against drugs.
Duterte has encouraged police to kill drug traffickers and addicts, and vowed to shield them from prosecution.
About 5,700 people have died in Duterte’s drug war since he took office in the middle of last year.
“Now cops appear to have upped their game by venturing into kidnapping for ransom in the name of the drug war,” the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which has reported critically on the crime crackdown, said in an editorial on Tuesday.
Dela Rosa, picked by Duterte to lead his war on drugs, last year urged drug users to kill traffickers and burn down their homes. He later apologised for his “emotional outburst”.
The Daily Inquirer newspaper on Monday quoted the missing man’s wife as saying the abductors had kidnapped him in a bid to extort a ransom.
The wife said she had already paid five million pesos ($100,000) but the kidnappers wanted another 4.5 million pesos, according to the newspaper.
Dela Rosa said he had ordered a “manhunt” for the officer, whose lack of co-operation he took as a sign of guilt.
“There is a big chance this idiot is really guilty,” Dela Rosa said.
Dela Rosa said he met with the businessman’s wife and the South Korean ambassador on Wednesday, assuring them the case would be quickly resolved.
“But honestly I doubt the Korean is still alive,” Dela Rosa said.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, a former national police chief, has vowed to launch a Senate investigation into kidnapping and extortion cases by the police force, which has a long history of corruption.
More than 250 paramedics from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) will serve hospital attachments over the next six years, in a move to hone the skills of emergency services here.
This is in response to the complex needs of Singapore’s ageing population – with four in 10 emergency calls in 2015 involving seniors.
Older people tend to have multiple health problems, which means paramedic training must get more sophisticated, explained SCDF chief medical officer Ng Yih Yng.
“When we manage the patients today, as compared with 20 years ago, (they) no longer have one problem where you can apply a single protocol,” he said. “We need to evolve the training from just application of protocol towards critical thinking and problem-solving… How do they prioritise and which is the problem they need to solve immediately.”
Yesterday, the SCDF inked a training deal with healthcare group SingHealth at a ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean.
Under the agreement, 14 nurses from the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) will also be seconded to the SCDF’s 995 operations centre.
This builds on an earlier pilot scheme involving four nurses that showed good results, including improving survival rates, said Associate Professor Marcus Ong, director of the unit for pre-hospital emergency care at the Health Ministry.
“Last month, one of my nurses told me that she gave instructions over the phone when someone was choking on a fishball… and that person was saved,” said Prof Ong, who is also a senior consultant at SGH’s emergency medicine department.
“This is a very practical example of the difference they can make.”
Both parties are also working to develop a programme to train senior paramedics to teach these advanced skills, eventually establishing them as paramedic educators.
Between 2011 and 2015, the number of emergency calls to the SCDF increased by about 5 per cent each year. Calls involving the elderly made up a growing proportion of cases – from 33.8 per cent in 2011 to 37.4 per cent in 2015.
As part of their hospital stints – at either SGH or KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital – SCDF paramedics will learn what goes on in the wards, emergency departments and operating rooms.
They will also be trained to deal with simulated emergencies at SingHealth’s new medical simulation institute, which was launched yesterday along with five colleges to train healthcare staff.
linettel@sph.com.sg
37.4 per cent
Percentage of emergency calls to SCDF involving the elderly in 2015.
14
Number of nurses from SGH to be seconded to SCDF’s 995 operations centre.
This article was first published on Jan 12, 2017. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
SINGAPORE — Planning to be out till late on Chinese New Year’s eve? SMRT will be extending its train services and selected bus services to get you home.
Last train timings from main MRT / LRT stations on Chinese New Year’s Eve (Jan 27):
Last bus timings from selected bus interchanges:
Passengers seeking additional information may call the SMRT Customer Hotline at 1800-336-8900 from 7.30am to 8.00pm on weekdays (excluding public holidays) or visit www.smrt.com.sg for more information.
Ministry of Education (MOE) kindergartens, which had a muted response at the start three years ago, are now seeing higher demand and enrolments.
Last year, there were 1,300 applications for places in the 15 kindergartens, which were set up by MOE to develop fresh approaches and best practices in early education. It was a 50 per cent increase from the 850 applications in 2015.
At four of the 15 kindergartens – at Punggol Green, Punggol View, Sengkang Green and Yishun – parents even had to ballot for places. The number of places varies from 60 to 120 at the centres.
MOE Kindergarten @ Punngol View, Punggol View Primary School.Photo: The Straits Times
The higher demand has also meant higher enrolment at the kindergartens. Currently, 2,300 children are enrolled in the kindergartens across the island.
This is a big change from the first year, when only about half of the 560 places offered were taken up.
Some parents had then cited the lack of childcare and school bus arrangements as reasons for the lukewarm response.
However, 12 of these centres now also offer before- and after-school care, up to 7pm. The programme, Kindergarten Care, is run by PCF Sparkletots Preschools.
MOE said four in five children enrolled live within 1km of their kindergarten, which indicates that proximity to home is one of the draws.
But several parents interviewed said they were also attracted by the fact that the kindergartens are MOE-run and are housed within primary schools, with good facilities.
A dozen of the centres are housed within primary schools.
Parents also liked the play-based curriculum and that all the three main mother tongue languages – Chinese, Malay and Tamil – were taught at the centres.
They also felt that the teachers were of high quality and the monthly fees of $150 for the four-hour programme were affordable.
Parent Cindy Ngo said: “The facilities were better than many other pre-schools I looked at… and my son had a lot of space to play.”
Madam Ngo, who runs a small business, said she did not know much about play-based curriculum, but saw a change in her son Jun Long after he started attending the kindergarten at Punggol View.
MOE Kindergarten @ Punngol View, Punggol View Primary School.Photo: The Straits Times
“He was more confident and would ask his teachers a lot of questions. He is doing well in Primary 2 now,” she said.
The kindergartens were set up to pilot innovative teaching methods and share them with the pre-school sector. These include focusing on learning through play, and placing strong emphasis on bilingualism.
A classroom, for instance, might be turned into a restaurant, so pupils can practise language and mathematics skills through designing the menu and role-playing.
Another highlight is that children learn through stories, songs and dances with a distinct local flavour.
MOE Kindergarten @ Punngol View, Punggol View Primary School.Photo: The Straits Times
Church caretaker William Andy said his son Aloysius, who attended the kindergarten at Blangah Rise Primary school, is now an avid reader.
“He brings back books from school all the time and asks me to read with him.”
MOE had said it was open to expanding the number of kindergartens beyond the 15 now.
Parents with young children welcome it.
Said former teacher Theresa Foo, 28, who has two children aged two and four: “All the research shows that early education is important and it has to be of good quality to give children a good start in life.
“And MOE has the resources to ensure that it is one of high quality.”
sandra@sph.com.sg
1,300
Number of applications last year for places in the 15 kindergartens set up by the Education Ministry.
50 per cent
Percentage of increase from the 850 applications in 2015.
2,300
Number of children enrolled in the MOE kindergartens across the island.
This article was first published on Jan 12, 2017. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
Oil giants Shell and ExxonMobil both had busy starts to the week.
Shell had a chemical leak at its Pulau Bukom manufacturing site on Monday, while a fire broke out at ExxonMobil’s Jurong Island chemical plant on Sunday morning.
No one was hurt in either incident, and both companies are investigating the causes.
A Shell spokesman said the chemical leak occurred in a unit that was already closed for maintenance and “mitigating measures were immediately taken”.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the leak on Monday afternoon.
Though it was not needed, it made its resources readily available at the site while Shell contractors contained the leak.
Shell did not say what the chemical was, citing commercial confidentiality.
The spokesman said: “There is no adverse impact expected in the water or the surroundings. Shell has a health, safety, security and environment policy and we are strongly committed to it.”
The fire at ExxonMobil’s chemical plant happened at 5.30am on Sunday and was put out by the SCDF and ExxonMobil’s in-house emergency response team within 25 minutes of SCDF’s arrival.
SCDF said the ExxonMobil fire at 100 Jurong Island Highway involved residual hydrocarbon.
An ExxonMobil spokesman said: “Safety is a core value at all our operations and facilities. We learn from all incidents and use these lessons to reinforce our commitment to continued safety improvement.
“While we manage our business with the goal of preventing incidents, we are prepared for emergencies should they occur and can respond quickly and effectively.”
SINGAPORE customs officers arrested eight Indonesian students early Wednesday morning after finding Islamic State-related materials stored in one of their mobile phones.
A source told Malaysian news agency Bernama that the group was detained by the Singaporean authorities at the Woodlands Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex at about 1.30am on Wednesday.
“During inspection, immigration personnel found images on Daesh (IS) militancy including that of a homemade bomb using a shoe in one of the suspects mobile phone,” the source was quoted as saying.
“The Singaporean authorities then placed the suspects under the ‘No Time Limit’ prohibited entry status into the republic before handing them over to Malaysian police for further investigation,” he added.
The Malaysian police interrogated the group for nearly seven hours after which they found that one of the suspects had obtained the IS images from a Whatsapp group, the source said.
“After the investigations, the suspects were deported to Batam, Indonesia by ferry before being detained by Indonesian National Police (INP) and Riau Police two hours later for follow-up investigations,” he said.
The students, who were reportedly from a religious school in West Sumatra, Indonesia, had been in Malaysia since Jan 3. One of them had sought medical treatment in the country.
The investigation also revealed that the group was in the northern state of Perlis four days later before going to Pattani, Thailand, on an excursion to learn about the education system in the province.
The source said the suspects returned to Malaysia on Monday before heading to enter Singapore via the Johor border.
In recent years, authorities in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines have heightened anti-terror security measures and laws to avert deadly attacks by international militant groups in wake of growing IS influence in the region.
A bus driver who contracted a deadly infection while on a pilgrimage to Mecca died yesterday, a day before his family was due to fly him home from a Jordan hospital.
Mr Abdul Ghafur Mohd Ibrahim, a Singapore permanent resident from Malaysia, was 59.
He had had his left leg amputated last month when bacterial infection set in in the wound he had suffered from a fall a month ago.
His death was said to be due to cardiac arrest, his son-in-law Mohamad Ameen Said Abdul Kadir told The Straits Times.
Said Mr Ameen, 37, an operations manager: “We were all looking forward to his return. But God has other plans for my father-in-law. We have decided to bury him in Amman.”
Mr Abdul Ghafur and his wife had left with a group on Dec 11 for the minor pilgrimage, known as an “umrah”, to Saudi Arabia.
While there, he fell after he was pushed, and someone stepped on his left ankle.
Two weeks later, while in Amman, Jordan, blisters began to form on his foot and he had to be hospitalised.
Despite being given antibiotics, the infection spread to his groin, and his left leg was amputated above the knee to stem it.
His family was faced with a medical bill of nearly $150,000 which it could not afford.
The insurance coverage of $20,000 for hospitalisation and $50,000 for repatriation that Mr Abdul Ghafur had bought before going on the umrah was insufficient to cover his escalating medical fees.
But the public stepped in after learning of his plight on Facebook and in the media.
Last Friday, Mr Ameen said his family had collected around $38,000 in donations.
“We are obliged to inform the public (of my father-in-law’s death) as my family is indebted to them,” he said.
Mr Ayoob Angullia of ST&T International, the only company authorised to sell insurance to pilgrims going to Saudi Arabia, told ST he was informed of the death by staff of the Malaysian consulate in Amman.
As a result of Mr Abdul Ghafur’s situation, the insurance coverage for all pilgrims going on their umrah may soon be revised.
The changes may see an increase in medical coverage and unlimited repatriation coverage but pilgrims will be expected to pay higher premiums.
ST&T International was coordinating the medical evacuation for Mr Abdul Ghafur.
A doctor and a nurse would have accompanied him on the flight home.
Mr Abdul Ghafur’s medical bills had also been negotiated to a lower amount equivalent to $81,000, which has been settled.
zaihan@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on Jan 12, 2017. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
Release of four-part album shows Super Girl’s newfound confidence, Chen Nan reports.
Chinese singer-songwriter Li Yuchun released her eighth studio album, Growing Wild, in 2016.
Instead of a CD including a dozen new songs, Li broke with tradition by separating the new album into four EPs.
She also teamed up with QQ Music, the music service under China’s internet giant Tencent, to launch the new album online.
The first EP, Wild, sold 3 million copies in 16 days after it was released in May of last year.
The three other EPs were then released within six months, with total sales of more than 6 million copies, grossing over 32.8 million yuan (S$6.76 million).
When the numbers were announced at a press conference in Beijing recently, the 32-year-old Li smiled shyly in front of her roaring fans.
“The idea for the new album started two years ago.
At that time, I just followed the traditional pattern of selecting new songs and put them into an album,” Li says.
What inspired her to break the album into four segments was that “usually we pick up one or two songs as the leading tracks, which then tend to overshadow the other songs,” Li says.
“But I like all 12 new songs very much and couldn’t decide which one should be the leading single. So why not introduce them to the fans three at a time?”
According to Andy Wai Lam Ng, the vice-president of Tencent Music Entertainment Group, Growing Wild achieved China’s highest digital music sales since the company released the first Chinese digital album, Taiwan pop icon Jay Chou’s album, Aiyo, Not Bad, in December 2014.
So far, QQ Music has released digital albums from many Chinese singers－including Dou Jingtong and Lu Han－South Korean boy group Big Bang, and Western artists such as Adele, Rihanna and Taylor Swift.
Li Yuchun performs during her Growing Wild tour, which toured five cities around China. Photo: China Daily/ANN
“Getting people to pay for digital music has become a trend in China’s music industry.
Digital music sales reached 110 million yuan in 2016, for year-on-year growth of 150 per cent.
“I wasn’t sure about my decision then, but now the result is very encouraging,” Li says.
“I want to break more barriers and push boundaries.”
Musically, the new album displayed Li’s ambition of being different.
She invited producers she had never worked with before, which brought surprise and inspiration throughout the making of the album.
One of the producers, Chen Weilun, also wrote songs for Li’s new album, including Sense of Presence and Fig.
Chen, who was a music producer for indie musicians and films, is keen on blending traditional Chinese music with modern sounds, such as rock, jazz and electronic music.
“She is not afraid of trying new things. The song, Fig, is not a conventional love ballad or dance music. The song is longer, nearly 6 minutes, and she sings like murmuring, which is different from her usual performances,” says Chen.
In support of the new album, Li launched a national tour, entitled Growing Wild, which visited five cities around China, including Beijing, Shenzhen and Nanjing, attracting more than 50,000 fans.
Li Yuchun performs with 300 dancers at a New Year’s Eve gala aired by Jiangsu Satellite TV Station on Dec 31, 2016.Photo: China Daily/ANN
It has been more than a decade since Li, a once unknown 21-year-old music student from Sichuan province, appeared on and won the televised singing competition Super Girl in 2005.
The TV show attracted a nationwide audience of 400 million and fans voted for the young singer with a neutral style and deep, soulful voice.
Her powerful individuality made her a phenomenon in the country.
Over the past decade, Li has released eight studio albums and more than 50 chart-topping singles.
Her annual, sold-out Why Me concert has been supported by her loyal fans, known as Yu Mi, literally translated as “corns”, a play on words for Yu’s fans.
“I was unprepared when my career took off. The songs I performed were chosen by my record company. I was just a performer,” Li says of her past 10 years.
It was not until 2009 that she started writing songs and realised what kind of music she liked.
“From then on, I was no longer a performer. I am a singer delivering messages through my music.”
That’s not to say Li is limited to music; she has also expanded her brand into movies and fashion.
In recent years, she has starred in big-budget movies, such as Hong Kong director Tsui Hark’s The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, which also features Jet Li and Zhou Xun.
Li Yuchun performs during her Growing Wild tour, which toured five cities around China. Photo: China Daily/ANN
She sat in the front row at Gucci runway shows.
Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele and American fashion designer Alexander Wang designed costumes for her Growing Wild tour.
French designer Jean Paul Gaultier created the wardrobe for her Crazy World tour in 2012.
In 2017, the singer-songwriter hopes to step further out of her comfort zone as a singer.
Like she raps in her new song, Xi Men Shao Nian, which was written by Li and is the last song of the new album, Li says that what matters to her is the original passion for music.
Students who sat the wrong O-level mathematics paper last October collected their result slips yesterday after a long and nervous wait.
And many would have been relieved: The majority received grades that were similar to or better than the results for their schools’ preliminary exams, said the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB).
But some students told The Straits Times that their results for the subject had dropped a few grades.
The SEAB did not give a breakdown of students who had fared better or worse.
Last October, 73 Secondary 5 students – 24 from Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School and 49 from Woodgrove Secondary School – sat the wrong O-level maths paper after a mix-up in the subject codes during registration.
The SEAB told The Straits Times that the overall performance of the affected students was “comparable to the respective schools’ past performances” for the subject at the O levels.
Woodgrove Secondary student Mira Shafiqah was among those whose grades improved.
The 18-year-old, who attained a B3 for maths at her preliminary exam, scored an A2 at the O levels.
She said many of her schoolmates received grades within expectations.
Several, however, did not expect to fare poorly for the subject.
An Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary student, who declined to be named, went from an A1 to a C5.
“It was a big shock,” he said. “Many of my classmates got similar results.”
During the exam, students came across a few questions they were unfamiliar with.
They later realised that the paper they had taken was different from the one they had studied for, after comparing the subject code on their entry proofs with that of their 10-year series.
The SEAB said the two schools in the mix-up “had indicated the wrong syllabus code during the registration process”.
Both schools admitted their oversight.
After the schools learnt of the error, they immediately notified the SEAB to ensure the students took the maths Paper 2 the next day under the correct syllabus.
Students did not have to resit the paper.
Earlier, the exam board said students would be fairly assessed.
Besides the students’ preliminary exam grades, it considered factors such as the circumstances of the incident, their performance in the other maths paper and the cohort’s performance.
Some parents were initially unhappy that their children’s preliminary exam results would be considered as part of the assessment.
They said such papers, taken before national exams like the O levels, are typically tougher, and students may not be as well prepared.
They were later reassured by the schools that the grading process would be fair, taking into account the other factors.
SEAB said “the use of schools’ preliminary examination results is part of the existing processes for candidates who are affected by unforeseen circumstances”.
In a statement yesterday, the Education Ministry said it had worked with the two schools to review the registration process for future exams, with additional checks put in place to ensure such mistakes do not happen again.
