SINGAPORE – To find suitable alternative locations for heavy vehicle parks, the authorities are looking to collect data on these vehicles’ travel and parking patterns.
Although there are now more parking spaces (over 44,000) than heavy vehicles (34,000), many…
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Three-year URA study to help relocate heavy vehicle parks
Carter calls for a more cooperative China
SINGAPORE – Amid the recent trading of barbs between the United States and China over the latter’s actions in the South China Sea, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Friday (June 3) urged Beijing to make a conscious decision to be “cooperative” and…
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Asia needs new ‘strategic equilibrium’ to tackle security challenges: Thai PM
SINGAPORE – Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha on Friday (June 3) called for a new “strategic equilibrium” in Asia as the governments in the region seek to tackle multiple security challenges.
Delivering the keynote speech for the 15th International…
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Top FIFA officials allegedly paid each other $110 million
A small group of FIFA’s top officials, including ex-President Sepp Blatter and his former second-in-command, Jerôme Valcke, allegedly paid each other bonuses and other incentives worth tens of millions of dollars, according to a cache of contracts disclosed by internal investigators on Friday.
The contracts, previously unknown to most of the top brass at football’s world governing body, also allegedly show bonuses for former Deputy Secretary-General Markus Kattner. Mr. Kattner was fired by FIFA last month for allegedly paying himself millions in secret bonuses. He didn’t respond to requests for comment at the time.
“The evidence appears to reveal a coordinated effort by three former top officials of FIFA to enrich themselves through annual salary increases, World Cup bonuses and other incentives totaling more than 79 million Swiss francs (S$109.9 million) – in just the last five years,” said Bill Burck, a partner with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, the US law firm that has run an internal probe over the past year. The firm shared details of the contracts in a statement.
In his role as chief financial officer, Mr. Kattner was responsible for signing off on FIFA’s largest payments, including eight-figure bonuses that went to Mr. Blatter, according to the contracts.
Julio Grondona, a former head of FIFA’s finance committee, also received bonuses and other incentives, investigators said. Mr. Grondona died in 2014.
Mr. Kattner, and attorneys for Messrs. Blatter and Valcke didn’t immediately return requests for comment. FIFA’s former chief auditor Domenico Scala, who the investigators say was aware of some of the payments, declined to comment.
Some of the contracts for the bonuses paid to Messrs. Blatter and Valcke were discovered in a safe sitting in Mr. Kattner’s office at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
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South China Sea dispute should be resolved peacefully: Singapore, India
Speaking to the media after the first Defence Ministers’ Dialogue, the defence ministers of India and Singapore say that there should be freedom of navigation when it comes to international waters.
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Singaporean who caused fatal NZ car crash sentenced to 4-months home detention, fined $25,400
A Singaporean man who caused a deadly car crash while on holiday in New Zealand last year was sentenced to four months of home detention and 200 hours of community service on Friday (June 3).
Lew Wei Kiong, 30, was also ordered to pay reparations of NZ$27,000 (S$25,400) for emotional harm for the accident, in which a motorcyclist was killed, the Otago Daily Times reported.
Lew, who is a senior analyst at the Energy Market Authority, had last month pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated careless use of a motor vehicle causing death, and three charges of aggravated careless driving causing injury.
He was convicted of all four charges.
According to New Zealand media reports, he had been driving a rented Toyota Corolla onto the wrong side of State Highway 1, before crashing into two oncoming cars and two motorcycles on Nov 29 last year.
One of the motorcyclists, 39-year-old Craig Alan Chambers, died at the scene.
Lew’s colleague, Ms Tay Hui Yun, was among three others who were seriously injured. She was subsequently airlifted to Dunedin Hospital and was transferred back to Singapore on Dec 19.
Lew had reportedly been driving at 120km per hour at the time of the crash, and did not brake.
According to Stuff.co.nz, Mr Chambers’ wife, Nicola, addressed Lew directly in court, and told him: “You are solely responsible for my child being fatherless and me being a widow.”
The Otago Daily Times reported that Judge Kevin Phillips had given Lew a lighter sentence due to his early guilty plea, and voluntary community work that he had already undertaken.
seanyap@sph.com.sg


FIFA headquarters searched, documents seized
ZURICH – Swiss investigators have searched FIFA’s Zurich headquarters and seized documents, the country’s prosecution authority said on Friday, while FIFA said the search targeted sacked deputy general secretary Markus Kattner.
“As part of the ongoing criminal investigations in the FIFA affair, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) carried out a search of FIFA’s headquarters on 2 June 2016 with the aim of confirming existing findings and obtaining further information,” it said in a statement.
“Documents and electronic data were seized and will now be examined to determine their relevance to the ongoing proceedings.” The OAG provided no further details, but FIFA spokeswoman Delia Fischer told AFP that Kattner’s offices had been searched.
FIFA dismissed Kattner, a 45-year-old German-Swiss national, last month on charges that he paid himself secret bonuses worth millions of dollars under a contract whose terms were kept secret from FIFA’s audit committees.
That investigation covered the period from 2008 to 2014, when disgraced former president Sepp Blatter was in charge.
Searches of FIFA’s headquarters had become almost commonplace since a giant corruption scandal exploded over a year ago.
The world football governing body’s new president Gianni Infantino has vowed to cut out the rot that spread during the Blatter era, but has increasingly faced criticism himself.
On Friday, FIFA was slapping back allegations in German media that Infantino was under investigation for a possible ethics violation.
Die Welt newspaper reported that Infantino had improperly ordered the destruction of the minutes of a FIFA executive committee meeting held at last month’s congress in Mexico city.
According to the paper, FIFA’s independent ethics committee was looking at the issue and could impose a 90-day ban on the new president if the allegation was confirmed.
But Fischer said the allegations were baseless, and a spokesman for the ethics committee’s investigatory arm, Roman Geiser, told AFP that “there are no formal proceedings going on against Mr. Infantino”.

20 Emergency Response Team officers commissioned
They are part of the Singapore Police Force’s efforts to combat terrorism. The officers were presented with their badges at the Police Day Parade.
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Musician Kitaro eats bak kut teh 2 days in a row in Singapore
SINGAPORE – Can you eat bak kut teh continuously for two days?
Japanese new age musician Kitaro did just that recently – and has even learnt to tell which bak kut teh restaurants use chilled pork and which ones use frozen pork, Shin Min Daily News reported.
He described the dish has having a “unique Nanyang flavour” and said that this was what made the soup “very delicious”.
Accompanied by his wife Keiko, who is also a musician, the 63-year-old flew into Singapore on Wednesday (June 1) at the invitation of a local refrigerated foods company.
Photo: Shin Min Daily News
One of the eateries he visited yesterday (June 2) was Old Tiong Bahru Bak Kut Teh, where he was joined by veteran actor Chen Shucheng.
Chen told Shin Min Daily News that he was delighted to be able to meet his idol, and that his wife was also a huge fan.
“We play Kitaro’s music in our car,” Chen said, adding that the 1999 Grammy award winner was very amiable and had no airs.
Apart from bak kut teh, Kitaro also tried different types of rice dumplings, and revealed that his favourite is kee zhang (also known as lye water dumpling) because of its similarity to Japanese mochi.
According to Shin Min, Kitaro was impressed by Singaporean cuisine when he was here for his concert two years ago.
huizhen@sph.com.sg


Kitaro eats bak kut teh 2 days in a row in Singapore
SINGAPORE – Can you eat bak kut teh continuously for two days?
Japanese new age musician Kitaro did just that recently – and has even learnt to tell which bak kut teh restaurants use chilled pork and which ones use frozen pork.
“The unique Nanyang flavour of bak kut teh makes it very delicious,” he was quoted as saying.
Accompanied by his wife Keiko, who’s also a musician, Kitaro flew into Singapore on Wednesday (June 1) at the invitation of a local refrigerated foods company, Shin Min Daily News reported.
One of the eateries he visited yesterday (June 2) was Old Tiong Bahru Bak Kut Teh, where he was joined by veteran actor Chen Shucheng.
Chen told Shin Min Daily News that he was delighted to be able to meet his idol, and that his wife is also a huge fan.
“We play Kitaro’s music in our car,” Chen said, adding that the 1999 Grammy award winner was very amiable and had no airs.
Photo: Shin Min Daily News
Apart from bak kut teh, Kitaro also tried different types of rice dumplings, and revealed that his favourite is the lye water dumpling because of its similarity to Japanese mochi.
According to Shin Min, the 63-year-old was impressed by Singaporean cuisine when he was here for his concert two years ago.
huizhen@sph.com.sg






