A fire broke out at Midpoint Orchard shopping mall last night.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) traced it to a stack of dry towels that had been left in the sauna room of beauty salon Rupini’s, which is on the third floor of the building.

The fire triggered the mall’s sprinkler system, said the SCDF, adding that it was alerted to the incident at around 9pm.

Two fire engines, two Red Rhinos and three special vehicles were sent to the scene but its officers put out the blaze using a hose reel in the building.

There were no reports of anyone being injured. An SCDF spokesman said that 10 employees of the beauty salon were evacuated.

Eyewitnesses said the mall, which stands opposite Somerset MRT station, appeared to be cordoned off as thick smoke rose from it.

Earlier this month, two fires broke out in separate incidents in Orchard Road.

The first, at shopping mall Tang Plaza, caused the evacuation of 100 people. The second happened in a kitchen at Mandarin Orchard hotel, forcing nearly 350 hotel guests to be evacuated.

linettel@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on March 29, 2016.
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He was waiting to make a right turn in Jurong yesterday morning when he heard something crash loudly onto the roof of his cab.

Moments later, his windshield shattered.

The cabby sat in his seat for a while, stunned.

He was thinking the worst had happened – a body had fallen on his car.

Photo: Shin Min

He was relieved to realise it was only a tree.

It had crashed from the left side of the road onto Mr Salman Salam’s blue Comfort taxi at about 9.55am at the junction of Corporation Road and Boon Lay Drive.

“It wasn’t raining. The weather was perfectly sunny and the road was clear,” he said.

The tree that fell on his cab also damaged the windshield of a van in the left-most lane of the three-lane road.

Mr Salman, who is in his 60s, said: “When the tree fell on my cab, it sounded like a body. I thought someone had committed suicide. I was so shocked I couldn’t even move.”

It was only after he saw leaves and branches around his cab that he realised a tree had fallen on it.

“I panicked for a while, but then I took a moment to collect myself and tried to open the door,” said the father of three.

But the door was jammed shut.

Photo: Wanbao

“I tried to force open the door until I ran out of energy so I just grabbed my mobile phone and started looking for emergency numbers to call,” said Mr Salman.

In less than five minutes, a crowd of passers-by started knocking at his cab to check if he was all right.

Mr Salman said: “About four to five men from the vehicles behind me helped to move the branches away and forced open the door.” The tree was about 3m long.

GRATEFUL

When The New Paper contacted him yesterday, Mr Salman said that the entire incident was still a blur but expressed his gratitude for the passers-by who helped him.

“There were a lot of people around helping me out but at that time, I was still in shock and didn’t manage to thank them properly,” he said.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force was alerted to the accident at about 10am.

Photo: Wanbao

A fire engine, a Red Rhino, two fire bikes, an ambulance and a support vehicle were sent to the scene.

A spokesman said that the taxi driver was assisted out of his vehicle by SCDF personnel.

Mr Salman and the van driver sustained minor injuries but both declined to be taken to hospital.

Ms Tammy Tan, group corporate communications officer of ComfortDelGro, said they are relieved that the cabby is unhurt.

She added: “We would like to thank the bystanders who had rendered assistance.”

Describing the accident as a near-death experience, Mr Salman said: “It was a close shave. I was very lucky that the tree didn’t fall directly on me.”

fnawang@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on March 29, 2016.
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Advertising revenue earned by the owners of socio-political website The Real Singapore (TRS) was used to pay the mortgage on an apartment held jointly by TRS chief editor Ai Takagi and her then boyfriend Yang Kaiheng, a district court heard yesterday.

Takagi, a 23-year-old Australian, paid off almost the entire 30-year loan of A$195,000 (S$201,000) in 11 months in 2014, leaving a balance of A$5,106.

The TRS website – of which she was a developer, operator, editor, moderator, administrator and owner – generated revenue through advertising, using Google AdSense.

Google AdSense automatically inserted advertisements into content published on the TRS website.

It also automatically tracked the number of visitors to the website, and tallied the amount of money to be paid to the owners.

From December 2013 to April last year, shortly before the TRS website and TRS Facebook page were shut down, Google paid a total of A$473,595 to the TRS owners.

The court heard that the couple, who married last October, were directors and shareholders of two Australian companies, both called Ryukun. Money credited into Ryukun’s account by Google in 2014 was transferred to Takagi’s Commonwealth Bank of Australia bank account. She transferred various sums of money to pay for the mortgage of the Brisbane property.

These details emerged when Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Roy Lim Eng Seng, from the Special Investigation Section of the Criminal Investigation Department, took the stand at Yang’s trial.

Yang, 27, has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of publishing seditious articles on the TRS website and its Facebook page which tended to promote feelings of ill will and hostility between the different classes in Singapore’s population.

One article, put up on Feb 4 last year, falsely asserted that a Filipino family caused an incident between the police and participants at the Thaipusam procession last year, while another “casts PRC women as home-wreckers”.

The Real Singapore duo arrested for sedition

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The New Paper, The Straits Times

Takagi, who is eight weeks pregnant, was sentenced to 10 months in jail last week after admitting to four counts under the Sedition Act.

In its opening statement earlier, the prosecution charged that the couple brazenly played up racism and xenophobia. They even resorted to outright and blatant fabrication to attract Internet users to their website with the aim of increasing their advertising revenue.

Bank statements showed that they earned between A$20,000 and A$50,000 plus a month.

DSP Lim, the investigation officer, said he picked up the couple from Yang’s grandparents’ home in Kalidasa Avenue, Upper Thomson, on Feb 6 last year after an online police report was made the previous day.

In his statement to the police, Yang said he mainly oversaw advertisements for the TRS page, as well as those on its iPhone and Android apps. Takagi was paid advertisement fees by Google AdSense.

“Although I do not manage the Facebook page at all, I do read articles on the page. This is my other involvement in the page apart from getting people to advertise on my page,” he stated.

If convicted, Yang, defended by Mr Choo Zheng Xi, could be fined up to $3,000 and/or jailed for up to three years per charge. Deputy Public Prosecutors G. Kannan, Suhas Malhotra and Sheryl Janet George are prosecuting the case before District Judge Ng Peng Hong.

elena@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on March 29, 2016.
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An explosion at a Jurong industrial gas supply firm in October last year was so powerful that it blew two workers off their chairs and caused part of the ceiling to collapse, a coroner’s court heard yesterday.

Madam Lim Siaw Chian, a 30-year-old chemist at Leeden National Oxygen, died in the ensuing blaze amid further explosions.

At the time, she had just returned to work from maternity leave.

Seven employees were reportedly hurt in the fire which engulfed the ground-floor laboratory at the firm in Tanjong Kling Road.

Madam Lim’s charred remains were found on six occasions, over a two-month period, and were identified via her infant daughter’s DNA, the court heard on the first day of the inquiry into Madam Lim’s death.

Police investigator Mohammad Amin Majid told the court that investigations by the Singapore Civil Defence Force and the Ministry of Manpower into the cause of the blaze have yet to be completed.

State Coroner Marvin Bay adjourned the hearing to April 15.

The inquiry heard that Madam Lim, who was also known as Krysten, was working at Leeden’s Specialty Gas Centre Quality Control Laboratory when the fire broke out on Oct 12 last year.

Work in the 35 sq m lab includes testing and analysing gases.

Leeden is involved in the storage, mixing and bottling of industrial gases such as hydrogen, helium, nitrogen and argon, for supply to shipyards and industrial firms.

At about 9.20am, a worker who was in the lab saw a flash of fire, heard an explosion and saw the ceiling collapse. He ran out of the room immediately.

Two other workers fell off their chairs because of the blast.

They shouted for Madam Lim, but did not get any response.

They were also forced to flee the room.

Further explosions were heard, and a blaze engulfed the lab.

Another worker, who had earlier left the lab, tried to return to look for Madam Lim, but was urged by the company’s emergency response team not to re-enter the premises.

The team managed to contain the fire until firefighters arrived.

About 10 workers used hoses, fire hydrants and extinguishers to prevent the blaze from spreading. They also activated the carbon dioxide suppression system.

About 150 workers were evacuated from the 1.6ha facility.

Family bids farewell to Jurong fire victim in Johor wake

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Twitter, Lianhe Wanbao, Shin Min Daily News, The New Paper, SCDF, Nicole Fong, The Straits Times, Lim Siaw Chian’s Facebook

The wake for Madam Lim, who had received Singapore citizenship just a month before she died, was held in Skudai, Johor.

Her husband, brother and aunt attended the inquiry yesterday, as did representatives from Leeden.

Outside the courtroom, Madam Lim’s husband Ooi Peng Fung told reporters: “It has been very hard; we are still coping with the loss. We just want to find out what happened.”

This article was first published on March 29, 2016.
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Four key challenges confront Singapore in the next 50 years, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam said yesterday.

These are: balancing financial prudence with higher social spending, a rapidly ageing population that does not replace itself, competition from abroad and terrorism.

Speaking to students at a forum in Nanyang Technological University, where he also answered questions on a range of issues, Mr Shanmugam outlined the “sobering reality” that the Government has in recent years been spending more than it collects.

This, he added, is possible because earlier generations of Singaporeans had saved enough, allowing the Government to tap on the income derived from investments.

He noted that whenever the Budget comes around, MPs, whether from the People’s Action Party or the opposition, will “stand up and talk about how the Government should be spending more, because that is popular”.

But he added: “Always ask yourself, every time a proposal is put forward, where is the money going to come from? Who is going to pay for it?” He warned the students that their generation will end up having to pay more taxes to clear the debt.

Singapore is one of the fastest greying populations in the world.

Besides raising healthcare costs, an ageing population will affect the country’s economic vibrancy and tax base, and result in fewer young people available for a defence force.

Mr Shanmugam shared a news article on how adult diapers will soon outsell baby nappies in Japan, and noted that Singapore is ageing even faster than Japan.

Abroad, Singapore faces both regional and global competition, with many countries trying to eat its lunch, he said. Whether it is Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong vying to be the next top financial hub, Thailand trying to overtake Singapore as the region’s largest air hub, or countries like Indonesia and Malaysia moving up the petrochemical value chain, Singapore cannot afford to take its position in the world for granted.

On terrorism, he said the Government views the threat of a terror attack as the highest it has ever been for Singapore.

He also said there was a limit on how much Singapore can do in working with its neighbours in tackling the problem of radicalised fighters returning from the Middle East.

“Sovereignty means they decide for themselves what their laws are,” he said. “We work closely with them on intelligence, on other issues, but we can’t decide what they do with their people, that is an inherent problem.”

Amid these challenges, there are also opportunities for Singapore, Mr Shanmugam noted.

While efforts to integrate ASEAN have yet to bear fruit, Singapore is well-positioned to be the financial centre for the region “if we can get that project going”, he said.

As a small and nimble economy, Singapore is also well-placed to take advantage of opportunities offered by China and India.

Singapore’s continued emphasis on education means a people who can think on their feet, which will be a crucial skill in a more unpredictable world. “They will also be adaptable. In fact, they will become the disruptors of other people,” he said.

Singapore is also confronting the terrorism problem head on, said Mr Shanmugam, who emphasised that the country’s security is the responsibility of all Singaporeans.

To this end, the new SG Secure initiative will train people to be better prepared for crises.

Noting that the goal of groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is to divide societies and alienate Muslims to fuel its recruitment drive, Mr Shanmugam called on Singaporeans to resist Islamophobia even as the Government continues to be tough on extremism.

He added that Singapore manages to maintain a harmonious community – by and large – by getting people of various faiths as well as agnostics and atheists to “think of ourselves as Singaporeans and we have to work very hard at that”.

yanliang@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on March 29, 2016.
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Before Noraidah Mohd Yussof can be sentenced for abusing her son, the court has to determine whether or not she has Asperger’s syndrome – an autism-like disorder that affects how a person interacts with others.

Defence psychiatrist Tommy Tan has diagnosed her with the condition, relying largely on interviews with her family members, primarily her mother.

But the prosecution rejects this diagnosis.

Dr Subhash Gupta from the Institute of Mental Health, who saw Noraidah and interviewed her family members not long after the boy’s death in 2014, does not think she has Asperger’s.

Deputy Public Prosecutor April Phang told the High Court yesterday that in 2014, Noraidah’s mother told Dr Gupta that there was “nothing wrong” with her.

However, the following year, her family members gave a different account to the defence psychiatrist, which resulted in Dr Tan concluding that Noraidah has Asperger’s.

The DPP, noting that Dr Gupta also spoke to Noraidah’s former husband and former boyfriend, pointed out that her family members were “interested parties”.

A further hearing will be held for the family members to testify and both psychiatrists to give their opinions.

The issue could have a bearing on the sentence meted out to Noraidah, who is represented by Mr Sunil Sudheesan.

She faces up to 10 years in jail and a fine for causing grievous hurt and a fine of up to $4,000 and jail of up to four years for ill-treatment of a child.

This article was first published on March 29, 2016.
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The mystery behind 18 dogs found wandering abandoned last week in various spots around the island has been solved.

The furry pedigree dogs, mainly poodles, belonged to the owner of a pet grooming school, and had been housed there as canine “models” for trainees to practise their scissor skills on.

The business owner, who spoke to The Straits Times last night, said he had been told by the authorities about two weeks ago that he could not keep the 30 dogs in his shop following complaints from neighbouring establishments about noise.

The man, who declined to be named, said he had been at his wits’ end over what to do.

“I wanted the dogs to be able to find a home. That’s why I left them in places where they could be found, even if there were CCTV cameras around,” he said.

“I know it was stupid of me, but I was afraid that if I sent so many dogs to one rescue group at the same time, they would be culled.”

So on Wednesday and Thursday last week, he left the 18 dogs in various places – such as an industrial park in Yishun, and in Tampines, Sengkang, Upper Serangoon and Petir Road – where he thought people would find and adopt them.

He stressed that the decision to do so had been his alone – he had told co-workers that he was giving the dogs to an animal welfare group, which he did with the remaining 12 dogs.

Posts on Facebook about the abandoned dogs last week which were “similarly groomed” caught the attention of animal welfare volunteer Derrick Tan, who runs animal shelter Voices for Animals. He worked with another animal welfare group, Ocean Rescue, to retrieve the animals.

On Thursday, Mr Tan posted a video on Facebook describing the “islandwide dog abandonment”.

Mr Tan, 35, said: “On Friday morning, the business owner called me and said that he left the dogs there as he did not know who to turn to for help, and that he had 12 more dogs that needed to be re-homed.”

Volunteers help care for dogs at animal shelters

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The New Paper

The owner has also made a one-time donation of $500 each, to Voices for Animals and Ocean Rescue group.

But Mr Tan pointed out: “Even though his intentions may be good, this shouldn’t happen as these are domesticated dogs which may not cope well on the street.”

People should instead turn to animal welfare groups or the authorities for help, he added.

Groups which have taken in the dogs say that although they smelled bad and some had skin issues and long nails, they showed no signs of abuse, and appeared generally healthy and well fed.

Twenty-two of them are now with Voices for Animals, and Mr Tan said they are in better condition compared with other dogs he has rescued in the past.

When The Straits Times visited their temporary home in Bukit Timah yesterday, the animals – among them poodle crosses, a maltese, shih tzu and cocker spaniel – were energetic, friendly and showed no fear of humans.

The other dogs are with groups including the Singapore Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and the Animal Lovers League.

In response to queries, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) said that pet abandonment is a form of animal cruelty. “AVA condemns acts of animal cruelty… and investigates all feedback on cruelty,” it said.

It is working with animal welfare groups to investigate the case.

Meanwhile, things are looking up for the 30 abandoned pups, as the groups which have taken them in have pledged that the dogs will be cared for until they can find new homes,

Said Dr Jaipal Singh Gill, SPCA’s acting executive director: “We will embark on finding loving homes for these dogs once our investigations are complete.”

Voices for Animals will be putting its charges up for adoption this weekend at the open field at 11 Pasir Ris Farmway 2, from 1pm to 5pm. For more information, e-mail vfasin@gmail.com

audreyt@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on March 29, 2016.
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NEW YORK – Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who met about 300 Singaporeans living in the United States at a reception in New York on Sunday, called on them to stay connected to home.

“You are all flying the flag for Singapore all the time… You are representing us and you will show what Singaporeans are, and I think that is valuable,” he said.

“Keep in touch with home, keep in touch with us… keep in touch and come home from time to time and, one day, come back home to Singapore.”

Mr Lee spent more than an hour chatting and taking photos with the crowd at the event, which featured a spread of Singaporean food including chilli crab, laksa and orh luak (oyster omelette).

The Singaporeans included students and working professionals and their families. Mr Lee wrote on Facebook later that he always looks forward to meeting Singaporeans when he visits a city.

In brief remarks at the reception held at the Permanent Mission of Singapore to the United Nations, Mr Lee said it was an interesting time in American politics, noting that the US presidential election in November will have a bearing on Singapore and the rest of the world.

“It is the American election, but the way America goes – what the mood of the country is and which leader they choose – is going to have an impact on the whole world. In New York, I shall have a chance to meet some people interested in the region to try and put us as a small dot on the radar screen.”

Many of the Singaporeans said they were pleased that Mr Lee had made the time to meet them.

Said Mr Tan Wai Choon, 70, a pastor: “It is very gracious of him to spend the time to meet us.”

Mr Lee is on a week-long working visit to the US. He was due to visit the 9/11 Memorial and Museum yesterday, and will head to Washington to attend the 4th Nuclear Security Summit, which begins on Thursday.

Jeremy Au Yong

This article was first published on March 29, 2016.
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