YUEYANG – A mother preoccupied with her mobile phone in China let her two-year-old daughter wander ahead – only to see the little girl fatally struck by a car.
The incident, which took place in Yueyang, in China’s Hunan province, on Monday (Oct 17), was caught on closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage, Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao reported.
Photo: Video screengrabs
Both mother and daughter are seen walking, with the child a distance ahead as the mother is busy looking at her phone.
As they move past a parked car, the little girl suddenly speeds up and dashes in front of the car just as the driver moves off, hitting the toddler and running over her.
Her mother rushes to her aid, but the girl had died on the spot, Wanbao reported.
Netizens criticised the mother for not keeping a close enough watch on the girl, with one saying: “The handphone has killed again.”
Another said: “They have no safety awareness at all. They think that any place is just like their own backyard.”
Others, however, also cast the blame on the driver of the car. They said that the driver was equally responsible as he or she did not check the surroundings before moving off.
This article was first published on Oct 23, 2016. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
SINGAPORE – Parliamentarians often dress in sombre tones in their work as lawmakers.
But 16 female members of Parliament (MPs) ditched their regular power suits and outfits for colourful Indian saris last Friday (Oct 21), for a Tamil Murasu photoshoot ahead of Deepavali on Saturday, Oct 29.
The Festival of Lights is celebrated by Hindus across the world to mark the triumph of good over evil, and light over darkness.
To celebrate the coming occasion, the MPs wore saris that ranged in colour from verdant greens to rich tones of red.
Posing in front of Parliament House, the 16 women – who included veteran parliamentarians such as Senior Minister of State for Finance and Law Indranee Rajah and newer MPs such as Ms Cheryl Chan and Ms Cheng Li Hui – lit up the Central Business District.
A picture of the group first appeared in Tamil Murasu on Sunday (Oct 23) as part of the newspaper’s annual Deepavali spread, which usually features leggy models or celebrities dressed in the traditional Indian garb.
But this year, the paper approached Ms Indranee, an MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC, to ask if she could gather a group of MPs for a photo.
Jalan Besar MP Lily Neo, Tanjong Pagar MP Indranee Rajah, Fengshan MP Cheryl Chan and Holland-Bukit Timah MP Sim Ann. Photo: Tamil Murasu
Ms Indranee told The Straits Times she felt it was a very nice way for the MPs to connect with the Indian community, adding that the sari was a cultural symbol that could be shared with those of other races.
“As one of the Indian MPs I thought it would be a very nice way of connecting… because Tamil is very hard to learn but a sari is much easier to wear.
“I figured the sari (the other MPs) can do lah, Tamil might take a bit longer,” said Ms Indranee, laughing.
She started gathered the group and gave them tips on where to buy their outfits.
(From left) Tanjong Pagar MP Joan Pereira, Bishan-Toa Payoh MP Josephine Teo, MacPherson MP Tin Pei Ling and East Coast MP Jessica Tan. Photo: Tamil Murasu
Wishing all Hindus a happy Deepavali, Ms Indranee said: “It’s really nice in Singapore that you can do this. It really says something about our multiracialism and the fact that we can be united in so many ways.”
Many of the MPs, including Ms Rahayu Mahzam and Ms Sun Xueling, bought their saris from the Tekka Market or Little India area.
Chua Chu Kang MP Low Yen Ling, Pasir Ris-Punggol MP Sun Xueling, Hong Kah North MP Amy Khor and Jurong MP Rahayu Mahzam. Photo: Tamil Murasu
Ms Rahayu, who jumped at the opportunity to wear a sari for the first time, said: “I learnt that there are actually more than 50 ways to put on a sari.”
Ms Sun, who is eight months’ pregnant, picked up her sari from Tekka Market last Friday morning just before the shoot.
She said: “At first I was a bit hesitant, because I wasn’t quite sure I would be able to fit. But I realised that’s the amazing thing about saris, it fits literally all shapes and forms.”
Tampines MP Cheng Li Hui, Nee Soon MP Lee Bee Wah, Jalan Besar MP Denise Phua, and West Coast MP Foo Mee Har. Photo: Tamil Murasu
Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam has hit out against “outright falsehoods” in an article about the elected presidency on a sociopolitical website and said he intends to make a police report.
The anonymous article, posted on the States Times Review website last Friday, made allegations with the “potential to create friction among the races”, he said at Sri Mariamman Temple last Saturday, on the sidelines of preparations for the annual fire-walking festival.
Titled “Law Minister K Shanmugam: Eurasian Singaporeans are Indians”, the article claimed that he “told a Eurasian Singaporean representative that Eurasians are considered Indian under the presidential candidacy law”.
This allegedly took place at an Institute of Policy Studies forum on the elected presidency last Friday.
The article claimed that Mr Shanmugam said: “Indians outnumbered Eurasians 20 to one. So it makes it difficult for (there to be) an Eurasian president.”
He was said to have made the remark “when the president of the Eurasian Association of Singapore, Benett Theseira, criticised the definition of Eurasian in the candidacy regulations”.
The article, which has been viewed over 25,000 times, appears to have been amended when viewed yesterday.
It wrote instead that “a Eurasian Singaporean representative complained that Eurasians are considered Indian under the presidential candidacy law”.
In a Facebook post last Saturday night, Mr Shanmugam said he was shocked by the article.
“All of this is completely false. During my session which lasted 90 minutes, I said nothing of the sort attributed to me, about Eurasians,” he added.
A post on government website Factually said it was “malicious” of the States Times Review to have spread “vicious falsehoods, calculated to sow discord among our different ethnic groups”.
It added that the Government will review the post and decide whether to take further action against the site.
A look at the presidents of Singapore
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The Straits Times, Zawiyah Salleh, New Nation, Wee Kim Wee, The Business Times, The New Paper, The Ong family, Lianhe Zaobao
“At a personal level, I don’t need to file a police complaint,” Mr Shanmugam said at the temple last Saturday.
“The reason I decided that I should take this seriously is because it is a system. It is the integrity that we ought to protect, and we shouldn’t allow people to throw stones at that and create friction among the races.”
He added: “There was no question, no discussion on Eurasians, at least in my session.”
While the perpetrator is overseas, said Mr Shanmugam, he has helpers here and the police report serves as a “marker” for conduct.
The Straits Times understands that no police report has been lodged as of last night.
Following Mr Shanmugam’s Facebook post and news reports, the States Times Review made other posts claiming the minister has lodged a police report “over criticism”. It alleged that Mr Shanmugam was looking for a “scapegoat to cover up his embarrassment”.
SINGAPORE – During Singapore’s full moon festival last month, employer John Kong was focused more on cost-cutting than celebrating. Not sending his clients traditional mooncake gift packages saved him S$14,000, and his 60 workers at building materials…
Even though four-year-old Eleanor Lee cannot fit into the smallest-sized T-shirt that was given free to all participants of The New Paper Courts Big Walk, that will not stop her from taking part in the event next month.
