There were 1,117 HFMD cases from Jun 5 to Jun 11 this year, down from the 1,234 cases reported from May 29 to Jun 4.
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Weekly cases of HFMD dip but remain above 1,000: MOH
Ang Mo Kio TB cases: Residents say no need to panic
The last time she made her four children wear face masks was during the haze last September.
But from today, 34-year-old housewife Siti Hasnah will make sure all of them don their masks, even at home.
Madam Siti, whose children are all under 10 years old, told The New Paper yesterday: “I am not going to take any chances with their health. Tuberculosis is no laughing matter.”
The Ministry of Health (MOH) yesterday announced that six individuals from her block – Block 203, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 – have been detected with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB).
These six people, who represent an “unusual cluster”, come from four unrelated units at the block.
All six cases are no longer contagious.
The first case was diagnosed in February 2012, and the latest one last month.
None of the cases involved children.
As a precautionary measure, on-site tuberculosis (TB) screenings will be offered at the block’s void deck from today till Sunday, between 9am and 9pm.
Former residents who lived in the block from July 2011, as well as those who are unable to go for the screenings on-site, may be screened at any Sata CommHealth clinic until June 30.
MOH officials went door-to-door yesterday evening to distribute information sheets and inform residents about the screenings.
When TNP visited the block at around 7.45pm, MOH officials were setting up the screening area at the void deck.
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TNP understands that the block, which has 11 storeys and one lift landing with two lifts, has 14 two-room units on each floor.
Although the screening area will be open till June 19, most of the residents that TNP spoke to said they will make time today to go for the screenings.
Said Madam Siti: “We’re going to go tomorrow at 8pm, right after breaking our fast. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Madam Saraspathy Khataperman, a 69-year-old cleaner who lives alone, said she would go for the screening this morning.
“Before I go to work, I’ll make sure to get tested. I’m not so scared but I think it is (about) being responsible,” she said.
Residents also told TNP they were surprised by the news, with many of them saying that they would be extra vigilant about their health in the coming days.
NO NEED TO PANIC
But some said there was no reason to panic.
Mr Fazli Sahat, a 34-year-old driving assistant and father of two, said: “Of course it’s a surprise. This area is always quiet and nice, so to have this suddenly happen is a bit shocking.
“It sounds like it’s under control, but I’ll be monitoring my family’s health.”
But Madam Siti is not taking any chances.
She said: “Officials don’t come knocking on doors when other people get sick. For them to come here, it must be quite serious.
“I’ve seen on television how dangerous TB can be, especially for children. I hope that this will all go away soon.”
harizbah@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on June 16, 2016.
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Abu Sayyaf: Killing was for Duterte
ZAMBOANGA CITY – The Abu Sayyaf said it meant to embarrass Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte after he had promised Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the beheading of John Ridsdel in April was not going to be repeated.
The Abu Sayyaf beheaded Canadian hostage Robert Hall to embarrass incoming President Rodrigo Duterte, according to the spokesperson of the notorious bandit group.
“This is for Duterte, the new President. This is for you to know what we will do to the Canadian,” Abu Raami, the spokesperson, said on Monday.
An hour after the phone interview with the Inquirer, Raami announced that the Abu Sayyaf executed Hall because the 600 million Philippine pesos (S$17.6 million) it demanded as ransom for his release had not been delivered before the 3pm deadline.
Another Canadian, John Ridsdel, was beheaded by the kidnappers on April 25 in Sulu province, where he, along with Hall and his partner, Filipino Maritess Flor, and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad were brought by armed men who raided an exclusive marina in the Island Garden City of Samal in Davao del Norte province on September 21 last year.
Sekkingstad, Flor and Dutch Ewold Horn are among seven hostages still being held by the Abu Sayyaf bandits.
In Manila, President Benigno Aquino III informed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the latest killing in a late-night call on Monday, soon after the government verified Hall’s death.
Aquino discussed how government forces were dealing with the Abu Sayyaf bandits who have pledged allegiance to Islamic State, according to well-placed sources.
“We strongly condemn the brutal and senseless murder of Robert Hall, a Canadian national, after being held captive by the Abu Sayyaf group in Sulu for the past nine months,” Aquino said in a statement.
Trudeau maintained that despite the deaths of two Canadian hostages, his government would not give in to demands of paying ransom to terrorist groups, like the Abu Sayyaf.
“I want to reiterate that terrorist hostage-takings only fuel more violence and instability. Canada will not give into their fear-mongering tactics and despicable attitude toward the suffering of others,” he said in a statement.
Head recovered
Maj. Filemon Tan Jr., spokesperson of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, confirmed on Tuesday that a severed head found dumped beside Jolo Cathedral in Sulu was Hall’s after comparing it to videos and photos of the hostage.
The head was placed inside a black trash bag left by two young men on board a motorcycle along Sanchez Street, 1.7 kilometres away from Camp Teodulfo Bautista, home of the 2nd Marine Brigade, in the vicinity of Plaza Rizal around 9:05 p.m. on Monday, according to Supt. Junpikar Sittin, Jolo police chief.
Raami said the beheading was intended for Duterte, the tough-talking mayor of Davao City who is to formally assume the presidency in two weeks after winning in the May 9 elections.
“You promised [Trudeau] that you will get them (hostages) alive and that what happened to Ridsdel will not be repeated,” he said in Filipino. “Let’s see if you will not be embarrassed.”
Duterte said in a press conference in May in Davao City that he had apologised to Trudeau for Ridsdel’s death. “We will try our very best to see to it that nothing of this nature will happen again,” he recalled telling the Canadian leader.
Media silence
The incoming president has not spoken to journalists for almost two weeks since his aides imposed a media policy that his statements would only be coursed through government information networks.
“I think the concern about the Abu Sayyaf should be addressed to the present administration because he is not yet the President,” Duterte’s spokesperson, Salvador Panelo, told reporters at the Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City.
“What I know is President-elect Duterte will not tolerate or condone the illegality in this country. He will do everything in this power to stop all these … . That’s his commitment, to stop all these cases of criminality,” Panelo added.
The incoming national security adviser, Hermogenes Esperon, said in Manila that the Duterte administration would “take a stronger action against lawlessness in the south.”
“We cannot allow this situation to continue, this should end once and for all,” Esperon told Reuters.
Condolences
Malacañang extended its sympathy and condolences to Hall’s family.
“We truly regret that our people’s cherished tradition of extending gracious hospitality toward foreign nationals has been marred by a small band of criminals whose despicable actions have been abetted by the extortion of ransom from their previous victims,” Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a text message.
Coloma thanked the Canadian government and people “for their steadfast support and understanding which has been extremely helpful in our determined efforts to end this decades-old problem.”
For the past two months, he said the military and police had been conducting operations that “degraded the capability of our enemies and limited their movements.”
On Monday afternoon, the President met with his Cabinet security cluster to receive updates from Jolo, canceling his attendance at the launch of a call centre facility in Pasay City.
The recovered head was flown to Manila on Tuesday and turned over to the Philippine National Police’s crime laboratory for forensic examination.
Tan said efforts were ongoing to recover the body of the victim.
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Primary One registration exercise to begin June 30
SINGAPORE – The registration of children for admission to Primary One (P1) classes in 2017 will begin in two weeks, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced on Thursday (June 30).
The registration period is from June 30 to Aug 26. All primary schools will…
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Residents of affected Ang Mo Kio block undergo tuberculosis screening
The Ministry of Health (MOH) is providing the screening after six cases of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) cases were found at the block in Ang Mo Kio.
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Cybercrime market sells servers for as low as $8 to launch attacks; Singapore firms targeted
FRANKFURT – A major underground marketplace acting like an eBay for criminals is selling access to more than 70,000 compromised servers allowing buyers to carry out widespread cyber-attacks around the world, security experts said on Wednesday.
Researchers at Kaspersky Lab, a global computer security firm based in Moscow, said the online forum appears to be run by a Russian speaking group. It offers access to hacked computers owned by governments, companies and universities in 173 countries, unbeknownst to the servers’ legitimate owners.
Access goes for as little as US$6 (S$8.10) for a compromised server. Each comes pre-equipped with a variety of software to mount denial-of-service attacks on other networks, launch spam campaigns, illicitly manufacture bitcoin currency or compromise online or retail payment systems, the researchers said.
Starting at US$7, buyers can gain access to government servers in several countries, including interior and foreign ministries, commerce departments and several town halls, said Costin Raiu, director of Kaspersky’s research and analysis team.
He said the market might also be used to exploit hundreds of millions of old, stolen email credentials reported in recent months to be circulating in the criminal underground.
“Stolen credentials are just one aspect of the cybercrime business,” Raiu told Reuters in an interview. “In reality, there is a lot more going on in the underground. These things are all interconnected.”
The marketplace goes by the name xDedic. Dedic is short for dedicated, a term used in Russian online forums for a computer under remote control of a hacker and available for use by other parties.
XDedic connects sellers of compromised servers with criminal buyers. The market’s owners take a 5 per cent up-front fee on all money put into trading accounts, Raiu said.
Kaspersky found the machines run remote desktop software widely used by network administrators to provide technical support for Microsoft Windows users. Access to servers with high capacity network connections may cost up to US$15.
Low prices, searchable feature lists that advertise attack capabilities, together with services to protect illicit users from becoming detected attract buyers from entry-level cybercriminals to state-sponsored espionage groups.
An unnamed Internet service provider in Europe alerted Kaspersky to the existence of xDedic, Raiu said.
High-profile targets include a US aerospace firm, banks in the United States, Philippines, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Ghana, Cyprus, South Korea and Saudi Arabia, chemical firms in Singapore and Thailand and oil companies in China and the United Arab Emirates, Kaspersky found.
Raiu declined to name the organisations. He said Kaspersky has notified national computer emergency response teams in several countries.
Read also:
Firms need to consider cyber exposure as high-risk priority
‘Cyber Caliphate’ hacks US Central Command’s Twitter and YouTube accounts
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Cybercrime market sells compromised servers for as low as $8 to launch attacks; Singapore firms targeted
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S'pore firms targeted in Cybercrime market selling servers for as low as $8 to launch attacks
FRANKFURT – A major underground marketplace acting like an eBay for criminals is selling access to more than 70,000 compromised servers allowing buyers to carry out widespread cyber-attacks around the world, security experts said on Wednesday.
Researchers at Kaspersky Lab, a global computer security firm based in Moscow, said the online forum appears to be run by a Russian speaking group. It offers access to hacked computers owned by governments, companies and universities in 173 countries, unbeknownst to the servers’ legitimate owners.
Access goes for as little as $$6 (S$8.10)for a compromised server. Each comes pre-equipped with a variety of software to mount denial-of-service attacks on other networks, launch spam campaigns, illicitly manufacture bitcoin currency or compromise online or retail payment systems, the researchers said.
Starting at $7, buyers can gain access to government servers in several countries, including interior and foreign ministries, commerce departments and several town halls, said Costin Raiu, director of Kaspersky’s research and analysis team.
He said the market might also be used to exploit hundreds of millions of old, stolen email credentials reported in recent months to be circulating in the criminal underground.
“Stolen credentials are just one aspect of the cybercrime business,” Raiu told Reuters in an interview. “In reality, there is a lot more going on in the underground. These things are all interconnected.”
The marketplace goes by the name xDedic. Dedic is short for dedicated, a term used in Russian online forums for a computer under remote control of a hacker and available for use by other parties.
XDedic connects sellers of compromised servers with criminal buyers. The market’s owners take a 5 per cent up-front fee on all money put into trading accounts, Raiu said.
Kaspersky found the machines run remote desktop software widely used by network administrators to provide technical support for Microsoft Windows users. Access to servers with high capacity network connections may cost up to $15.
Low prices, searchable feature lists that advertise attack capabilities, together with services to protect illicit users from becoming detected attract buyers from entry-level cybercriminals to state-sponsored espionage groups.
An unnamed Internet service provider in Europe alerted Kaspersky to the existence of xDedic, Raiu said.
High-profile targets include a US aerospace firm, banks in the United States, Philippines, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Ghana, Cyprus, South Korea and Saudi Arabia, chemical firms in Singapore and Thailand and oil companies in China and the United Arab Emirates, Kaspersky found.
Raiu declined to name the organisations. He said Kaspersky has notified national computer emergency response teams in several countries.
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Taiwan relaxes visa requirements for Asean states
TAIPEI – By Sept. 1, travellers from Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar will have been given visa privileges that others from their fellow Asean member states now enjoy, the Taiwan government said.
Taiwan on Wednesday announced a series of changes and plans to simplify visa applications for visitors from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), aiming to boost the number of travellers from the area by at least 20 per cent this year.
By Sept. 1, travellers from Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar will have been given visa privileges that others from their fellow Asean member states — Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand — as well as India now enjoy, the Taiwan government said.
Taiwan is working to reduce the visa obstacles for all 10 Asean member states, strengthening its relationships with these countries in line with the government’s “New Southward Policy,” said Hsieh Wei-chun, director general of the Tourism Bureau.
Taiwan is looking to extend the visa-free privilege — currently given to travellers from Singapore and Malaysia — to more Asean countries, Hsieh said.
Apart from the visa application changes, Taiwan will step up its promotional campaigns to attract more visitors from Asean and India.
According to government estimates, the number of Asean travellers will increase at least 20 per cent this year compared to the total of 1.42 million from the area in 2015. Asean tourists are expected to bring revenues of more than NT$13 billion (S$0.54 billion) for Taiwan this year.
Hsieh said Taiwan is keen to attract tourists from Asean and India, both of which show strong economic growth and increases in the numbers of tourists traveling abroad.
To promote Taiwan, the government has been arranging for foreign TV programs to film in Taiwan, said Hsieh, adding that a Bollywood production is currently doing a location shooting in Taiwan.
This week, Taiwan will hold promotional events in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand, Hsieh revealed.
Hsieh dismissed speculation that the visa privileges for Asean were meant to make up for losses in revenue from the diminished number of tourists from China.
He said Taiwan has been keen to attract tourists from Asean and that the new government is simply expending efforts toward this aim.
The number of tourists coming to Taiwan reached more than 10 million in 2015, but this year’s focus is on creating more value rather than expanding that number, Hsieh said.
According to statistics from the Tourism Bureau, international travellers (excluding those from China) totaled 3.73 million from January to April 2016, rising 12.42 compared to the same period of a year ago. Meanwhile, the number of mainland China tourists rose 10.61 per cent to reach 1.51 million.
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Royal Sporting House Up to 70% Off Moving Out Sale at Funan from 16 – 30 Jun 2016
Royal Sporting House moving out sale up to 70% off at Funan till 30 Jun
Royal Sporting House Up to 70% Off Moving Out Sale at Funan from 16 – 30 Jun 2016
Royal Sporting House and Golf House at Funan DigitaLife Mall has started their moving out sale featuring discounts of up to 70% off
Business sentiment among SMEs rises for first time in 7 quarters
Small- and medium-size enterprises in Singapore are “marginally optimistic” about their growth prospects in the next six months, according to the SBF-DP SME Index.
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