Officers at Woodlands Checkpoint found the tortoises kept in a bag placed among other bags of groceries in the car boot.
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Man caught with 22 star tortoises at Woodlands Checkpoint
Ikea recalls chocolate bars over allergy concerns
SINGAPORE – Swedish furniture giant Ikea issued a recall of two lines of chocolate bars on Monday (June 27) over concerns that its labelling was not sufficient for consumers allergic to milk and hazelnut.
An incident in Japan involving a nine-year-old child,…
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Domino’s Pizza 1-for-1 Pizzas Coupon Codes from 27 Jun – 1 Jul 2016
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Pressure mounts on Thai junta over fake bomb detectors
BANGKOK – Activists on Monday urged Britain to hand over details of the multi-million-dollar sale to Thailand of fake bomb detectors that led to the detention of scores of innocent people.
British fraudster Gary Bolton was jailed in 2013 for making millions selling the GT200 – which he billed as a “magic wand” able to detect tiny particles of explosives or drugs from hundreds of metres away.
It was in fact a useless home-made plastic box with a radio antenna – made for $6 but sold for between $3,300-$13,000 per unit to governments including Thailand, Mexico and Iraq.
On Monday Jatuporn Prompan, the leader of Thailand’s pro-democracy ‘Red Shirt’ street movement, urged the British embassy in Bangkok to share details of contracts between Bolton’s firm and the kingdom’s officials.
“Particularly the contracts of broker companies which sold them (GT200) to the Thai government and how much they cost,” he said in a YouTube post.
A corruption probe into why the Thai military and several other departments bought the device despite expert advice has ground to a halt.
Thailand’s army chief at the time was Anupong Paojinda, the current interior minister and an architect of the 2014 coup that restored the military to power, toppling the Red Shirts’ hero Yingluck Shinawatra.
Anupong repeatedly defended the use of the fake detector even as tests cast serious doubt over its efficacy.
In 2010, the year the GT200 was officially banned from export by British authorities, he told reporters that “we don’t have a replacement yet so we continue to use it.” Last week Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, a senior general during Anupong’s tenure as army chief, said the device was “useful once… but when they were proven to be useless they were not used anymore.” Rights groups say hundreds of people were detained – some for several weeks – in Thailand’s restive south after erroneous findings of traces of explosives by security officers using the GT200.
“Regardless of court rulings in the UK and overwhelming scientific evidence, Thai military leadership still defend the use of GT200,” said Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch Asia.
He said the first sales took place in 2005, ultimately amounting to orders of nearly 1,400 GT200s worth $32 million across 15 separate agencies.
Sunai called for a probe into possible loss of life and the “large numbers of wrongful arrests” due to the use of the bogus equipment.
The powerful military refuses to concede it was duped over its rumoured $20 million acquisition, or apologise to those held in what rights groups call a flagrant miscarriage of justice.
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Monday, June 27, 2016 – 16:45
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Ikea recalls chocolate bars as milk and hazelnut are not clearly labelled
Ikea has recalled chocolate bars because of insufficient labelling on the packaging, advising consumers of the presence of milk and hazelnut.
It advises customers who have bought dark chocolate CHOKLAD MÖRK 60 per cent and CHOKLAD MÖRK 70 per cent that the presence of milk and hazelnut is insufficiently declared on the packaging of those products.
It said the chocolate is safe to consume for those who do not have an allergy to milk or hazelnuts.
It cautioned that individuals who have such allergies may experience an allergic reaction if the products are consumed.
All affected products have been removed from the shelves. Ikea added that safety was its highest priority and products with all “best before by” dates are recalled.
Customers allergic to milk or hazelnuts or who have concerns, may return the affected products at the nearest Ikea store at a full refund. The “best before date” can be found on the back of the chocolate bar (YYYY/MM/DD).
xiuhuil@sph.com.sg
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Monday, June 27, 2016 – 16:20
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Singaporean family stranded in Taipei due to China Airlines strike
TAIPEI – At least one Singaporean family is stranded in Taiwan’s capital, after a first-ever strike by staff from the island’s largest carrier China Airlines (CAL) last Friday (June 24) shut down almost 200 flights.
The strike, staged by hundreds of the airline’s flight attendants calling for improvements to their working conditions, left over 30,000 passengers at Taipei’s Songshan and Taoyuan airports, as well as abroad, without a means to get to their destinations.
Singaporean Mary Lee, who arrived at Taoyuan airport early Friday morning from Hawaii with her husband and twin daughters, received a rude shock when she discovered that their flight back to Singapore (scheduled to depart at 7.50am the same day) had been cancelled.
Ms Lee’s husband, a US citizen and Singapore permanent resident, frequently commutes between Hawaii and Singapore for business and the family travel to Hawaii twice a year for their holidays in June and December.
“It was chaos. Scores of passengers were crowded around the airline’s counters and there were a lot of angry people shouting and screaming,” she told The Straits Times, adding that she had spoken to other Singaporeans at the airport who were in a similar situation.
With the help of airport staff, Ms Lee and her family managed to get a room at the nearby Monarch Plaza Hotel, where they have been stuck for the past two nights as they attempt to secure a flight to Singapore.
Their luggage is still being held by CAL, while Ms Lee’s 9-year-old daughters, who attend Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Primary), are set to miss the reopening of school on Monday (June 27).
They are scheduled, tentatively, to depart on a Singapore Airlines flight on Tuesday afternoon.
While the strike came to an end late last Friday after the airline’s new management agreed to all the demands raised by the Taoyuan Flight Attendants Union on behalf of the flight attendants, the Taiwanese media reported that Taoyuan airport was still overrun with a backlog on Saturday.
CAL’s new chairman, Mr Ho Nuan-hsuan, was quoted as saying that 80 to 90 per cent of flights on Sunday would take off as scheduled.
Said Ms Lee, who failed to speak to the airline despite countless attempts over the past few days, criticised CAL’s management for their poor handling of the entire affair.
“I don’t blame the flight attendants as they are fighting for their rights, but the airline should have informed their passengers sooner so we could make alternative arrangements,” she said.
A frequent traveller on CAL, Ms Lee added that it was her first time in such a situation.
According to the Taipei Times, new CAL chairman Mr Ho had lambasted his predecessor, Mr Chang Yu-hern, for a lack of responsibility and implied that Mr Chang’s refusal to make concessions to the flight attendants had led to the strike.
The airline’s management team was also criticised for holding a “farewell party” for Mr Chang at a posh hotel before the strike took place.
This article was first published on June 26, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
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Monday, June 27, 2016 – 15:44
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Blogger Han Hui Hui fined over 2014 protest at Hong Lim Park
SINGAPORE – After a seven-day trial filled with tears and hysterics, blogger Han Hui Hui was convicted and fined S$3,100 in a district court on Monday (June 27) for organising a demonstration without approval at Hong Lim Park and causing a public…
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Blogger Han Hui Hui fined S$3,100 for disrupting YMCA event
The blogger was found guilty and fined S$3,100 for disrupting a 2014 charity event for special needs children at Hong Lim Park by leading a rowdy protest.
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Photographer captures spectactular lightning strikes with 49 shots over 2 hours
Stomp contributor Vincent shared a jaw-dropping photo showing multiple lightning strikes across the sky in Singapore.
The picture was taken at Circuit Road, and consists of 49 shots over two hours.
Vincent, who also posted his work on Facebook, said:
“It’s shot at Circuit Road. But it’s visible mainly from the central area of Singapore if there is no blockage of view.
“Currently, it’s towards the end of monsoon season so there are stronger lightning storms.
“Once you spot lightning, just point your camera in the direction on a very stable tripod with a wired remote. It is not advisable to move the camera at all. Otherwise, the image will be blur.
“This photo is a total of 49 shots over two hours. There is software that allows you to stack the image on top of one another and if you get enough strikes, you get a image like this.
“I have a video on my profile to show the details on the different strikes and how it forms this picture.
“A wide angle lens would also help capture a bigger field of view.”
Vincent’s work has also been featured by Canon Singapore.
Visit STOMP for more stories.
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Monday, June 27, 2016 – 15:34
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Mizuki Yamamoto happy to share screen with 2 famous ghosts
Sadako and Kayako, two notoriously vengeful ghosts from the popular horror movies “The Ring” and “Ju-on,” take each other on in “Sadako vs Kayako,” which opened in cinemas across Japan last week.
“The film is almost like an attraction at an amusement park. It offers you two different kinds of fear through two different characters,” said actress Mizuki Yamamoto, who plays the film’s heroine, Yuri.
Eighteen years after its release, the horror in “The Ring” (1998) remains fresh and intense. In that film, people who watch a videotape showing Sadako die within a week. The climactic scene depicts Sadako crawling her way out of a TV screen in a white dress with long dark hair.
“I think many people think of Sadako first when referring to Japanese ghosts,” Yamamoto said. She said she came to feel sorry for the character after closely watching the film several times.
In “Sadako vs Kayako,” Yuri purchases an old video player that has the cursed videotape inside it. After watching the content out of mere curiosity with a friend, Yuri receives a silent call on her smartphone.
Yamamoto says she was impressed how the film cleverly rewrote the terror elements by updating its technological aspects. The telephone was changed to a smartphone and it was the internet that spread Sadako’s image. “I thought, ‘So that’s how you did it,'” she said.
Yuri seeks the help of a medium to break Sadako’s curse. His advice is to bring in another powerful ghost and make them fight against each other, eliminating them both in the end. His choice is Kayako from the “Ju-on” series. Kayako is still living in her house of horrors and showing her power, dragging curious visitors up to the attic. She has her eye on a high school student, played by Tina Tamashiro.
Yamamoto humbly said the protagonists of the film are Sadako and Kayako. “I was there to make them shine,” she added.
But the 24-year-old up-and-coming actress learned a lot during the shooting of her first horror film. “I never knew that expressing shock through your breathing and movements required such physical strength. I’m pleased I was able to achieve that,” Yamamoto said.
Horror film fans were debating on the internet before the film’s release whether Sadako or Kayako would win out in the end.
“I don’t think there are that many actors who would have the chance to appear in both ‘Ring’ and ‘Ju-on’ films,” Yamamoto said. “I’m really lucky to be involved in two great Japanese horror films.”
Visit sadakovskayako.jp for more information.
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Monday, June 27, 2016 – 15:27
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