Ants scurry around in transparent boxes stacked outside a Singaporean store that is tapping into an unlikely but growing local trend of keeping the six-legged creatures as pets.
John Ye says he became fascinated with the “altruistic, compassionate” creepy-crawlies after receiving some as a gift from his brother-in-law.
The 41-year-old eventually ditched a job in electronics distribution to open “Just Ants” in January and cater to fellow enthusiasts.
“I wish to have a place where people can gather and share insights, and share their ant-keeping journey,” Ye told AFP.
The shop sells ant farms along with specialist equipment, including mini handheld vacuums for catching the insects, tiny feeding dishes and mealworms used as feed.
It was forced to close for a period due to a coronavirus lockdown earlier this year but has reopened since restrictions were eased, and business is picking up.
It stocks 30 to 40 species, sourced from ant-keeper friends or collected by Ye and his team around Singapore.
Catching the creatures is no easy task. It is usually only possible during so-called “nuptial flights” — when new queens and winged male ants take to the air in the hope of finding a mate.
– Pets or pests? –
The queen ants are then placed in test tubes or small tanks, where they give birth to a colony of worker ants if they have mated.
Ye’s personal collection includes tens of thousands of marauder ants, a species of the creature commonly found across Asia, housed in a large box.
The number of ant aficionados in Singapore is small but growing, according to Ye — a Facebook group where keepers exchange advice and information has nearly 4,000 members.
But Ye knows he has his work cut out to convince people in Singapore, where ant-keeping is rare, that the creatures are pets and not pests.
Most Singaporeans believe “you should actually not keep ants because ants… are poisonous, they are dirty, disgusting, they carry diseases”, he conceded.
“We always fear something that we don’t understand.”
Beginner ant-keeper Wei Sern Lim visited the shop to buy a box of food and a new home for his colony.
“It’s nicer to see the products and a lot more convenient just to have a physical shop,” the 30-year-old told AFP.
Others simply turned up to see whether such a shop really existed.
“I’m very tickled, they are actually selling ants as pets — it’s totally unheard of,” said visitor Michelle Serio.
In the second part of MBC’s Coffee Prince documentary, the Coffee Prince cast continued to reflect on the show and talked about their late co-star Lee Eon. The second part of My Dear Youth – Coffee Prince was aired by MBC on October 1. Just like the first episode, the main cast reminisced about scenes in the show and shared behind-the-scenes stories in pairs of two: Gong Yoo and Yoon Eun Hye, Lee Sun Gyun and Chae Jung An, Kim Dong Wook, and Kim Jae Wook.
Lee Sun Gyun visited the house of his character Choi Han Sung as he commented, “It’s been such a long time. I feel so weird. This place is like treasure to me.”
He spoke about working with Chae Jung An, sharing, “Jung An was cast last. Back then, I had hoped that she wouldn’t reject me as her partner.” Later, the two met up and Lee Sun Gyun hilariously asked, “Did you change your number? Didn’t you see my kids [at the hair salon]? I sent you a text that day but it was ignored.”
In response to his earlier comment, Chae Jung An shared, “There was a gap between the Choi Han Sung I saw in the script and Lee Sun Gyun.” With a big smile she continued, “I thought he had to be good at acting for him to perfect this character with his looks.”
Lee Sun Gyun replied, “Now that you’re here, we’ve suddenly gone into variety mode.” Chae Jung An firmly told him, “That’s the trend these days.”
While watching some of their scenes together, Lee Sun Gyun revealed, “When I look back, I had first suggested I wear my rimmed glasses to the director. He was calm and carefree and the reference I thought for myself was, ”
Wouldn’t Choi Han Sung be similar to the singer Yoon Sang?’
Also, since I’d never played a rich character before, I felt pretty pressured but I think my surroundings did all the work for me. In order to naturally portray Choi Han Sung, I dressed in the clothes that I regularly wore.”
The two also talked about Lee Sun Gyun’s version of “Ocean Travel” by Tearliner. Chae Jung An commented, “I’ve passed the age to get that emotional about a man singing for me. All of this is part of being young.”
Lee Sun Gyun explained, “In the script, I was originally supposed to sing a rock version of the children’s song ‘Sunset.’” Producing director (PD) Lee Yoon Jung later added, “We had no idea viewers would like that scene and the song so much. After hearing his recording, we thought, ‘We’ll just go with this.’ Then I learned that he had stayed up all night making this with Tearliner.”
Lee Sun Gyun revealed that he had to sing the song without the instrumental and purposely messed up because he was so embarrassed. He added, “All the staff were laughing then. Eun Hye was there too and she laughed a ton.” After watching the singing scene, Gong Yoo hilariously remarked, “I think we’re better at singing.”
Chae Jung An jokingly asked, “Did you sign a music contract?” Lee Sun Gyun answered, “I didn’t sign a contract. Someone out there is making money.”
Unlike all the other comments made while watching Lee Sun Gyun and Chae Jung An’s intense romance scenes, Kim Dong Wook hilariously took everyone off guard by commenting, “Both of them have such nice skin.”
After watching himself from 13 years ago, Lee Sun Gyun shared, “It’s not common to remember a character’s name but I think I’ll remember Choi Han Sung forever. That’s because it’s a role I’m so thankful for. It was probably my last youth drama, and the last of my youth.”
Next, the cast watched scenes of Kim Dong Wook and Kim Jae Wook as Jin Ha Rim and No Sun Gi respectively. During the time of the drama, the two were both 25 years old (by Korean reckoning). Before tuning in, Kim Jae Wook commented, “Let’s see how much we’ve aged in 13 years.”
While looking at the “princes,” Gong Yoo commented, “We were all so excited. We were all overflowing with our own drive. Whenever their story came out, they would be curious for the next script. Then they could think about how they would act it out. We could freely try this and that so it was such a good and precious experience.” Kim Dong Wook shared, “We worked so hard. That’s why I think we received as much love as the main characters.”
PD Lee Yoon Jung talked about casting Kim Dong Wook, revealing that he first caught her eye in an independent film. She explained, “Although he wasn’t used to being at the broadcasting station, he wasn’t scared at all. His acting improved with every audition.”
Yoon Eun Hye stars opposite Gong Yoo in Coffee Prince. Picture: Instagram
The cast also spoke about their late co-star Lee Eon, who played fellow cafe employee Hwang Min Yeob. Lee Eon passed away on August 21, 2008, following a motorcycle accident. Kim Jae Wook commented, “It was strange watching him appear in the video earlier. That the 26? 27-year-old Lee Eon, Hwang Min Yeob, Park Sang Min [Lee Eon’s birth name] that I knew appeared.”
He continued, “He was the person who was the most strict to me. He was a senior to me, both at my agency and as a model. Since he used to do wrestling, he was very adamant about maintaining the senior/junior hierarchy. That’s why he was more tough with me than anyone else.”
Yoon Eun Hye shared, “Since he was in the model industry and really respected the senior/junior hierarchy, he took care of me really well. Even to me, he would diligently call me ‘Yoon sunbae.’”
Lee Eon’s agency president commented, “He was a pretty trendy person. The way he saw things was just different. If he couldn’t succeed in the model industry because of his body, he thought it was possible in the acting world so he was trying to work very hard as an actor.”
Gong Yoo shared that he received the news of Lee Eon’s passing while he was serving in the military. He commented, “What is most regretful is that afterwards, although he could’ve done so much, he wasn’t able to. That’s what’s most upsetting.” Gong Yoo continued, “Jae Wook and I cried so much in front of his coffin. Even when we met up after, we purposely didn’t talk about it for a long time, because it’d be too hard. Although a lot of time has passed, whenever I think of Sang Min, my heart always hurts. It would’ve been great if Eon were here with us today.”
Kim Jae Wook added, “Every year around this time, I think a lot about Sang Min hyung. He was a hyung who had so much that he wanted to do. Regardless of the result, he was someone who bravely did everything he wanted to do.”
While reflecting on their past selves, Gong Yoo remarked, “‘Coffee Prince’ is a record of the peak of my young adulthood. It’s my unchanging summer where we were the brightest.”
Singapore – A sex predator has been targeting minors of different nationalities since he was only 17 years old himself.
According to a report in asiaone.com, Sebastian Lye Chee Weng was finally caught in November 2018, after a 13-year-old girl in America reported him to her guardian. The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was living in Arlington, Texas at the time of the crime.
Lye would befriend his victims on the basis of having common interests like “cosplay” and “anime”. He would then get them to converse with him online and eventually to send him salacious photos and videos of themselves.
He was also able to convince them to do sexual acts for him as he watched through the web camera.
Lye, who is now 26, has since pleaded guilty to one count each of sexual exploitation of a minor and has been sentenced to eight months and two weeks in jail.
On Wednesday (Sept 30), the court heard how Lye managed to lure minors into speaking with him. He would get to know them via online social media platforms that permitted virtual strangers to chat based on common interests. There was also a live video function that allowed them to speak via webcam.
On July 10, 2018, Lye spoke to the American girl on video chat and managed to convince her to reveal herself, even getting her to agree to do certain sexual acts on webcam.
The Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) said: “Unbeknownst to (the victim), the accused recorded video footage of her doing the (sex acts).”
He then told the victim to send him naked photos of herself, to which she originally refused. He then threatened to hack into her computer and send the recorded video he made of her to her family.
Then, according to the DPP, “fearing that the accused would carry out his threats, (the victim) relented and sent Lye at least seven photographs of herself in the nude”. When he harassed her for even more photos, she finally decided to tell her guardian about him.
The guardian got in touch with Lye, asked him who he was and told him to stop getting in touch with the minor.
Lye, however, threatened the guardian that he would release the nude video and pictures of the girl to her friends if the guardian did not allow him to continue or send him more nude photos of herself. This prompted the guardian to report the incident to the Arlington Police Department.
The case was reported to the Singapore Police Force by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct 16, 2018. The police managed to track down his Internet Protocol (IP) address. They raided Lye’s home on Nov 14 and managed to arrest him and seize two computers, a tablet and three mobile phones. They managed to extract at least 39 obscene videos recorded from his online chats with a number of unidentified females, many of which were done without consent. Police also found a number of pornographic videos on the devices.
During mitigation, Lye — who did not have a lawyer during his proceedings — told District Judge Ow Yong Tuck Leong that he wanted to seek counselling. The judge said he was glad Lye took the initiative to ask for help.
According to Mr Gregory Vijayendran, who is President of the Law Society and a partner at Rajah & Tann, the case will not likely be extraditable since the offences are not under the Extradition Act.
“A number of factors point towards Singapore as an appropriate jurisdiction to try this case,” he explained, including the fact that Lye was arrested in Singapore. /TISG
Los Angeles — Chrissy Teigen, an American model and cookbook author, and her singer husband John Legend have lost their third child due to pregnancy complications.
The 34-year-old wrote about the devastating news on her Twitter and Instagram late on Wednesday (Sept 30), a few days after she tweeted about experiencing abnormal bleeding.
“Driving home from the hospital with no baby. How can this be real?” she wrote.
In another post, Teigen said the family was in a “deep pain that you only hear about” and that they were going through “the darkest of days”.
The model also said that she and Legend, 41, had refrained from naming their two previous children until they were born but that they had started to call their unborn baby, a boy, by the name of Jack.
“We were never able to stop the bleeding and give our baby the fluids he needed, despite bags and bags of blood transfusions. It just wasn’t enough.
“We never decide on our babies’ names until the last possible moment after they’re born. But we, for some reason, had started to call this little guy in my belly Jack.
“So he will always be Jack to us. Jack worked so hard to be part of our little family, and he will be, forever.”
In her post, Teigen added a photo of herself looking distraught while clasping her hands in a hospital bed. The model concluded her statement with a message of hope, admitting that “everyday can’t be full of sunshine” and that she and Legend have promised to “love each other harder” as they get through this trying period.
Notable Hollywood figures including Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Viola Davis and Selma Blair rallied together in Teigen’s Instagram comments to express their condolences and support.
Many also commended Teigen for bravely sharing her story and breaking taboos surrounding conversations about miscarriages.
Chrissy Teigen and John Legend lost their third child. Picture: Instagram
Teigen had announced only two months ago that she was pregnant with her third child.
Her first two children with Legend — Luna and Miles — were conceived via IVF but this baby was a complete surprise. The supermodel found out about the pregnancy when she was having her breast implants removed. It was because she was so early on in the pregnancy that it was not detected before the surgery.
Recently, Teigen uploaded an update on Instagram Story: “I wanted to update you. My placenta sucks. It’s always been kind of, um, the bad part of my pregnancies. With Luna, with Miles — it just stopped feeding him, taking care of him, I was like stealing all of his food because I was getting huge, but he wasn’t getting big at all. So, he had to come out early and Luna had to come out early. I was induced both times …” /TISG
Singapore — Workers’ Party Chairman Sylvia Lim will not be re-filing her adjournment motion to speak in Parliament on issues pertaining to the high-profile court case involving domestic helper Parti Liyani.
In a statement on Friday (Oct 2), the party noted an update the previous day from the Minister for Law “that internal reviews by the Police and the Attorney-General’s Chambers into the handling of Ms Parti Liyani’s case still require a few more weeks to conclude”.
The party added that it will join the debate after Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam delivers a Ministerial Statement on the matter in Parliament.
Ms Lim had filed an adjournment motion, titled Justice For All: Enhancing Equity In The Criminal Justice System, to highlight aspects of the criminal justice system and the challenges faced by people of less means in navigating it.
Ms Lim’s motion was not successful in the ballot and, instead, Nee Soon GRC MP Louis Ng will speak in his adjournment motion on the topic of protection against second-hand cigarette smoke in homes.
Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin said in a Facebook post on Tuesday (Sept 29) that Ms Lim and Mr Ng were at Parliament to witness the balloting, which the latter won.
The adjournment motion, which is meant to raise additional matters of public concern, is allotted to one MP for each Parliament sitting. Five were filed for the October session as follows:
Ms Denise Phua (Jalan Besar GRC) – Towards Full Participation Of Persons With Disabilities In Singapore Society.
2. Ms Sylvia Lim (Aljunied GRC) – Justice For All: Enhancing Equity In The Criminal Justice System.
3. Ms Carrie Tan (Nee Soon GRC) – Increasing Support For The Sustenance Of Livelihoods Amongst Performing Arts Workers.
4. Dr Wan Rizal Wan Zakariah (Jalan Besar GRC) – Eradicating Mental Health Stigmatisation.
5. Mr Louis Ng (Nee Soon GRC) – Protection Against Secondhand Smoke In Our Homes.
When more than one MP submits an adjournment motion, the MP who gets to speak at a sitting is decided by ballot.
In its statement, the WP wrote: “Appreciating the premium on Parliament’s time, WP will coincide its contribution to the debate with the Ministerial Statement as far as practicable. WP Chair MP Sylvia Lim will therefore not seek any further ballot in October of the adjournment motion filed by her.”
It added that there are wider questions about the criminal justice system which the case has highlighted, “including the appropriate approaches to take to diagnose and respond to any shortcomings”.
“The strong public interest in the case, and in the underlying issue of access to justice for all, bodes well for a critical public discussion on how the poor and disadvantaged can adequately navigate the criminal justice system,” the party said.
????????? ???? ??? ???????' ?????The Workers' Party (WP) notes the update on 1 October 2020 from the Minister for Law,…
Ms Parti, an Indonesian, was employed by Mr Liew Mun Leong from 2007 till 2016. In addition to working in her employer’s home, she was sent on “multiple occasions” to work in his son’s home and office.
On Oct 28, 2016, the Liew family decided to sack Ms Parti and gave her two hours to pack her items and leave. She allegedly said that she would lodge a complaint with the Ministry of Manpower about being deployed to work in the son’s home and office.
The Liews said they checked Ms Parti’s belongings out of concern that they could contain illegal items and allegedly found items that belonged to them. On Oct 30, the family filed a police report against Ms Parti.
However, the investigating officer allowed the family to use the items allegedly found in Ms Parti’s boxes as long as they did not discard them. The officer said he did not seize the items as he did not wish to “re-victimise” the family.
Ms Parti returned to Singapore on Dec 2, seeking employment, but was arrested at Changi Airport. On Dec 3, the investigating officer went to the Liew residence to take photos of the items — which would only end up in police custody nearly a year-and-a-half later, on April 18, 2018.
Ms Parti was interviewed by the police, with no interpreter present. A Malay officer translated the investigating officer’s questions from English to Bahasa Melayu.
She was charged in August 2017, claimed trial in April 2018 but was convicted on four counts of theft last March and sentenced to two years and two months in jail.
On Sept 4, 2020, the High Court overturned the convictions on appeal and acquitted Ms Parti of all charges. In his ruling, Justice Chan Seng Onn said that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and called the convictions “unsafe” given the presence of an “improper motive”.
Mr Liew has retired from his public service and business roles with Changi Airport Group, Surbana Jurong, Temasek Foundation and Temasek International. /TISG
Singapore — Among the important findings from a post-election survey is that younger voters considered the character of candidates in this year’s General Election to be more important than their academic or work credentials.
The survey was conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and was discussed in a forum online on Thursday (Oct 1).
Yahoo News Singapore quotes Associate Professor Tan Ern Ser of the National University of Singapore, one of the four members in the team that led the study, as saying: “What struck me is that it seems like credentials and contribution seems to matter much less now, as compared to character. So, when the candidates present themselves, if they talk too much about their credentials, that may not really help.”
A/Prof Tan said this in the context of questions in the survey regarding the character traits of candidates, such as honesty and being a “fair person”. Respondents were asked which quality was the most important to them.
The answer with the largest percentage increase in the “very important” rating was being a “fair person”, which rose 9 percentage points particularly with respondents in the 21-29 age group and among diploma-holders.
And while Dr Lam Peng Er of the East Asian Institute believes that the People’s Action Party (PAP) will stay as the “perennial party in power” for the foreseeable future, the PAP will likely face a smaller vote share and may even lose its two-thirds majority, due to younger, better educated, and more discerning voters who have material (job security, housing, transportation and more) and post-material concerns (values, citizens having a greater voice in Parliament, fairness and more).
Dr Lam, who said the opposition is here for the long haul, added: “It is not inconceivable that the Workers’ Party (WP) wins another SMC (Single-Member Constituency) or GRC (Group Representation Constituency) in the next general election.
The survey had 4,027 Singaporean respondents from the ages of 21 and older, in the fourth time that the IPS has held such a post-GE study. The team comprised A/Prof Tan, Dr Gillian Koh, Dr Teo Kay Key and research associate Damien Huang.
For the respondents, the most important issues are “the need for good and efficient government” and “government’s handling of the Covid situation”, with three other key issues emerging as “very important” as well: The job situation, cost of living and the need for different views.
Dr Derek da Cunha, an independent scholar, said during the forum that “the majority of Singaporeans are, to varying degrees, socially and politically conservative by nature”. Therefore the WP, being a moderate and non-confrontational alternative to the ruling party, has been successful in winning seats in Parliament.
He said: “Workers’ Party has no radical agenda, and quite right too.” /TISG
During a champagne paint night with their family, sisters Nicole Richie and Sofia Richie posed for a rare selfie. The night included dad Lionel Richie who acutely called his Tabasco painting, ‘fire’.
On Wednesday, September 30, the sisters joined the family for an outdoor art party with their father Lionel Richie. The siblings posed for a rare selfie that night, together with Nicole’s 12-year-old daughter Harlow Madden whose father is Joel Madden.
The three of them crouched and smiled for the photo in front of trees lit with stunning string lights. Sofia donned jeans and a white tee, Nicole wore a red strapless outfit and Harlow looked comfortable in white sweatpants, a blush tank top and a shell necklace. “My favorite trio,” Sofia wrote.
The gathering featured mini metal easels at the tables for each guest as well as a small bottle of Moët champagne and a pink box of goodies from The Beverly Hills Hotel. Sofia posted photos of “the cool table” where she worked on an illustration of a bottle of Tabasco sauce on a yellow background. She tweaked the Tabasco label to say ‘SR’ for her initials while her friend Tess Kemper’s drawing read ‘Lord K’. Sofia’s father Lionel also featured his name on the hot sauce label.
Nicole Richie tweaking a painting of a Tabasco sauce bottle. Picture: Instagram
The 71-year-old Grammy winner captioned the masterpiece on Instagram, “et voila,” and boasted, “My painting is fire.” Lionel and wife Brenda Harvey adopted Nicole when she was nine. Later on, he welcomed 22-year-old Sofia with Diane Alexander. This art party was held a week after Nicole’s 39th birthday. She even received a shoutout from Adele on her big day.
The “Hello” singer wrote on Instagram, “Happy belated birthday to my daily dose of grace @nicolerichie I admire you and love you so much.”
Sofia celebrated her 22nd birthday in August and was seen boarding a private jet with Kylie Jenner’s pals Anastasia Karanikolaou (better known as Stassie Baby) and Victoria Villarroel. During that time, Sofia had just broken up with Keeping Up With the Kardashians star Scott Disick. E! News reported that the couple had split up ‘for good’ and are ‘no longer speaking.’
“Friends attributed their 15-year age difference becoming an issue,” a source told E! News over the summer. “He’s in a very much different place in his life, really focused on a more quiet lifestyle, his kids and his investment businesses.”
In September, Sofia was spotted having a ‘flirty’ beach day in Malibu, California with Will Smith’s son, Jaden Smith.
Jaden would set the record straight, telling Ryan Seacrest, “Me and Sofia have been friends for like 10 years. We’ve been going to the beach pretty consistently for 10 years too.” The Coachella performer added, “Yeah, we’re just homies and we love each other and it was fun.”
Lee Hsien Yang, brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong took to social media questioning why Workers’ Party (WP) MP Sylvia Lim’s motion to speak on the high-profile case involving former maid Parti Liyani was not chosen.
Sharing Progress Singapore Party (PSP) Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) Leong Mun Wai’s post on the issue, Mr Lee wrote on Wednesday (Oct 30): “Why is “Justice For All: Enhancing Equity in the Criminal Justice System” raised by Sylvia Lim NOT on agenda?”
Why is "Justice For All: Enhancing Equity in the Criminal Justice System" raised by Sylvia Lim NOT on agenda?
Instead of Ms Lim, Nee Soon GRC MP Louis Ng will speak on the topic of protection against second-hand cigarette smoke in homes in his adjournment motion.
Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that Ms Lim and Mr Ng were at Parliament to witness the balloting, which the latter won.
The other Adjournment motions filed for the October sitting were as follows:
Denise Phua – Towards full participation of persons with disabilities in Singapore society
Sylvia Lim – Justice for all: Enhancing equity in the criminal justice system
Carrie Tan – Increasing support for the sustenance of livelihoods amongst performing arts workers.
Wan Rizal – Eradicating mental health stigmatisation.
Louis Ng – Protection against secondhand smoke in our homes.
When more than one MP has submitted an adjournment motion, the MP who gets to speak at a sitting is decided by ballot.
Three other MPs had also submitted adjournment motions, which are meant to raise additional matters of public concern and is allotted to one MP for each Parliament sitting. The other three MPs are: Ms Denise Phua (Jalan Besar GRC), Ms Carrie Tan (Nee Soon GRC), and Dr Wan Rizal Wan Zakariah (Jalan Besar GRC). /TISG
Singapore—After the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a statement saying that a lawsuit filed by a Malaysian human rights group against K. Shanmugam, Singapore’s Minister for Law and Home Affairs, was thrown out by the High Court of Malaysia, the group also issued a statement decrying what it claimed to be a mischaracterisation of the proceedings.
Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) filed a suit against the Minister on January 24, 2020, after Mr Shanmugam issued a Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) direction on January 22.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), LFL published an article on its website that had “untrue, baseless and preposterous allegations about judicial executions conducted in Changi Prison,” and it therefore directed the rights group to place a correction notice at the top of the article.
The MHA said in a statement that “LFL’s legal action sought, inter alia, a declaration that the correction direction was null and void, and that the Act was unenforceable against them.”
The ministry added that on September 21, the High Court of Malaysia struck out the lawsuit filed by LFL, since the group did not serve court papers in the suit as well as discontinued applications to renew these papers.
LFL’s reason for not serving or renewing the applications for the papers were undisclosed, according to a report in thestraitstimes.com on October 1.
The MHA added, “LFL’s conduct in commencing its legal action, publicising the same, and then failing to prosecute the matter, leading to its striking out by the High Court of Malaysia, is consistent with how LFL has conducted itself so far.
LFL made sensational allegations against the Singapore Prison Service, and the treatment of prisoners, and promised to put forward evidence. But nothing was put forward to substantiate its wild and completely untrue allegations.”
After stating that the group’s legal action had been “in response to the issuance of a notice under the notorious POFMA Act by Singapore against LFL for exposing brutal execution methods in Changi prison,” LFL further called the statement from MHA as “ incorrect and irresponsible” claiming that the Ministry “intended to mis-characterise what happened in the KL High Court and mislead the public in both Singapore and Malaysia”
LFL clarified that the suit had “simply expired” because it had not been served upon Mr Shanmugam yet. Additionally, the group had actually been allowed by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur to re-file the civil suit “which shows that the suit was far from being ‘baseless’. We note that Singapore deliberately did not mention this important fact in their press statement,” LFL added.
The group further confirmed in its statement that it has re-filed the suit against Mr Shanmugam in the KL High Court.
LFL added, “We will be vigorously prosecuting this civil suit, which is intended to protect the freedom of expression of Malaysians against encroachment by a foreign country.”
As an added clarification, the group also claimed that Singapore’s Attorney-General had refused to accept service of the court papers “by letter of February 13, 2020.”
More details about the rights’ groups allegations may be found in its statement. —/TISG
Singapore — A total of 342 foreign workers who live in a block in Space@Tuas have been moved to a government quarantine facility following the detection of a new Covid-19 infection in the dormitory.
According to the ministry’s preliminary assessment, “the physical segregation measures to prevent workers across two different blocks within the dormitory from intermixing could have been breached”, which means that some of the workers may have been mingling with others.
As a precautionary measure, a Stay Home Notice (SHN) was immediately issued to the workers residing in the two blocks to ensure there was no further spread of infection.
But, when the investigation concluded, “it was established that it was unlikely for workers from different blocks to have intermixed”, and therefore the SHN was lifted for the unaffected block.
The ministry announced, however, that safe living measures had not been strictly implemented in the block where the worker who tested positive lives. Due to this, 342 workers living in this block, who work for 27 different employers, have been deemed as at-risk for the infection and, therefore, put into 14 days of quarantine.
The ministry also made an appeal for compliance with strict safe living measures within the dormitories to dormitory operators, employers and workers, to limit and minimise the need for isolating workers, and so that entire blocks need not be given SHNs.
It stated: “All stakeholders must play their part:
Dormitory operators must ensure that Safe Living measures remain effective.
Workers must continue to strictly comply with Safe Living measures and remain within their respective residential zones.
Employers should ensure that their workers adhere strictly to Safe Living measures in their dormitories and consistently undergo the RRT.”
All worker dormitories, including Space@Tuas, had been cleared of the infection last August, but infection clusters have shown up over the past weeks.
To date, Singapore has had a total of 57,896 Covid-19 cases, including the 10 new cases reported on (Friday (Oct 2). Of the new cases, one is a community case and five are imported cases “who had all been placed on Stay-Home Notice upon arrival in Singapore”, said the Ministry of Health. /TISG
