SINGAPORE – A man was arrested for allegedly impersonating a police officer and molesting a woman on June 5.

According to the police, the 38-year-old man had allegedly molested the victim around 10.30pm along Tanglin Halt Road. He was subsequently arrested at Redhill Close yesterday (June 6). 

If found guilty of impersonating a police officer, the suspect could face up to two years in jail, or a fine or both. If found guilty of molesting the woman, the man faces a jail term of up to two years and could also be caned.

This incident comes shortly after the ongoing trial of a pizza delivery man who allegedly posed as a police officer and raped a 16-year-old girl in October 2013.

According to My Paper, Muhammad Firman Jumali Chew, 30, had allegedly seen the girl being intimate with her 16-year-old boyfriend at a HDB stairwell at Block 362, Woodlands Avenue 5. After they tried to leave after noticing him, he had allegedly posed as a police officer and asked for their identification cards.

Fearing repercussions, the teenagers had allegedly acquiesced. After telling the boy to leave, he allegedly brought the girl up to the fifth floor of Block 359 and raped her.

In a statement, the police reminded the public to remain wary of people impersonating police officers. They added that a police officer’s warrant card could be requested to verify the officer’s identity if people were in doubt. 

A genuine warrant card will have identification features such as the police crest, the photo of the officer, his or her name and NRIC number. When the card is tilted at an angle, the holographic word “POLICE” will also appear below the Officer’s photograph.

If they are still unsure of the person’s credibility as a police officer, people should call 999 for assistance.

prabukm@sph.com.sg

SINGAPORE – Theresa Chan Poh Lin, Singapore’s Helen Keller, has died at the age of 72 after battling advanced lung cancer, The Straits Times reported.

She succumbed to the disease yesterday morning (June 6), about two months after she was diagnosed with the disease.

Her last days were spent at Assisi Hospice, where her friends watched her round the clock.

Ms Chan opted for palliative care although treatment options were presented to her, a friend told The Straits Times.

She began giving instructions for her will and funeral towards the end of last month.

She was cremated yesterday evening after a Catholic mass held in the afternoon, as per her wishes.

Her urn will be placed next to her mother’s at the columbarium of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul.

Ms Chan’s extraordinary life was the inspiration for local filmmaker Eric Khoo’s 2005 movie Be With Me, which she starred in.

After losing her hearing and sight to a bout of meningitis by the time she was 14, Ms Chan was found by a social worker who changed her life.

On top of receiving an education, Ms Chan played sports and travelled widely.

She had told the late John Wilson when he was director of the Royal Commonwealth Society for The Blind that “she wanted to learn like Helen Keller, to speak English like the Queen of England, to meet everyone in the world”.

During an interview with The Straits Times in April, when she was still in Singapore General Hospital, she said that she was not afraid of cancer: “If I have to go home, I will be happy to see Jesus. I hope people will remember me and remember that whatever their disabilities, they should have hope and not be unhappy and discouraged.”

She added: “I have lived and loved and enjoyed a wonderful life.”

huizhen@sph.com.sg

With the dry season approaching in South-east Asia, Singapore has announced it will continue to send a haze assistance package to Indonesia to combat the country’s forest fires.

The package this year is similar to last year’s, comprising up to two C-130 aircraft to ferry a fire-fighting assistance team from Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), who will be providing fire-fighting assessment and planning assistance to their Indonesian counterparts; another C-130 aircraft for cloud seeding operations; and high-resolution satellite pictures of fires and the coordinates of the fire sites.

Transboundary haze from land and forest fires has been a perennial problem in the region for decades.

Schools in Singapore shut as regional haze reaches unhealthy levels

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

AFP, Reuters, The Straits Times

Illegal and unsustainable land clearing methods, in particular “slash and burn” agricultural practices by irresponsible companies, have been identified as the root cause of fires that result in transboundary haze pollution, the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) said in a statement today (June 7).

Last year’s haze episode was one of the worst and the most prolonged in history, and had a major impact on the health and livelihoods of the people in Indonesia and many countries in the region including Singapore.

“The Singapore Government remains committed to working with the Indonesian Government and other like-minded partners to find more permanent solutions to this regional problem,” the MEWR said.

huizhen@sph.com.sg

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