Category Archives: Singapore

Singapore appeal court upholds death sentence for intellectually disabled man

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Outcry over drug smuggling case of Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, who has IQ of 69 and could be executed in days

A man with learning disabilities who has spent more than a decade on death row could face execution within days after Singapore’s top court dismissed his last-ditch appeal, in a case that has drawn global condemnation.

Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, a Malaysian national, was arrested in 2009 for attempting to smuggle 43g of heroin – about three tablespoons – into Singapore.

Nagaenthran, who was 21 at the time of his arrest, has said he was coerced into carrying the package, which was strapped to his thigh, and did not know its contents at the time.

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European countries dominate half of Asian shark fin trade, report reveals

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Despite nearly a third of shark species nearing extinction, Spain supplied 51,000 tonnes of shark fins from 2003-20, says IFAW

European countries are selling so many shark fins to Asia that they dominate nearly half the trade, a study has found.

Shark populations continue to decline, driven by the global shark fin trade. Last year, scientists found a third of sharks and ray species have been overfished to near-extinction, jeopardising the health of entire ocean ecosystems and food security for many countries.

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Singapore courts set to consider executions amid fears authorities want to clear backlog

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Case of Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, who has learning difficulties, among four to be heard next week

Courts in Singapore will next week consider arguments by four men who have spent more than a decade on death row, amid fears the city state may push ahead with executions to free up space on death row.

The Singaporean government does not disclose how many people are held on death row, though campaigners believe there are likely more than 50 men awaiting execution, the majority of whom have been convicted of drug offences.

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Singapore urged to halt two executions over disability concerns

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The men convicted for drug offences could be executed on Wednesday as Singapore draws increasing scrutiny over its use of the death penalty

Singapore has been urged to halt the scheduled execution of two men convicted of a drug trafficking offence, with campaigners describing the plans as cruel and inhumane.

Roslan bin Bakar and Pausi bin Jefridin, who were arrested in 2008, are due to be executed as early as Wednesday. Campaigners have raised numerous concerns about the handling of their cases, and say that Pausi, a Malaysian national, has an IQ of 67, and so should be protected under international law.

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‘I thought I was going to die’: otters attack British man in Singapore park

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Graham George Spencer says he was bitten 26 times in 10 seconds while out for a morning walk

A man attacked by a pack of otters in a Singapore park has said that he thought he was going to die during the ordeal.

Graham George Spencer, a British citizen living in Singapore, said he was chased, pinned down and bitten “26 times in 10 seconds” by a family of otters while out for an early morning walk in the botanic gardens.

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Singapore suspends crypto exchange over row with K-pop band BTS

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Bitget reportedly loses licence after it promoted Army Coin, named after group’s ‘BTS army’ followers

Singapore’s financial regulator has reportedly suspended Bitget, a crypto exchange that is mired in a row involving South Korea’s biggest boyband, BTS.

Bitget has removed the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s logo from its website, the Guardian confirmed. The platform still claims to have licences from Australia, Canada and the United States, according to its website.

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Singapore to start charging Covid patients who are ‘unvaccinated by choice’

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Authorities say unvaccinated people make up a ‘sizeable majority’ of those needing the most intensive care

Singapore will no longer pay the Covid-19 medical bills for people “unvaccinated by choice”, the government said, as the country grapples with a surge in cases.

The government currently covers the full Covid medical costs for all Singaporeans, as well as permanent residents and long-term visa holders, unless they test positive soon after returning home from overseas.

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Singapore court stays execution of man with learning disabilities

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Rights groups condemned decision to execute Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, who has learning disabilities

Singapore’s high court has stayed the execution of a man convicted of smuggling heroin, following outrage among rights groups who said he had learning disabilities and the sentence was a violation of international law.

Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, a Malaysian national, was arrested in April 2009, when he was 21, for attempting to smuggle 43 grams of heroin into Singapore. The drugs had been strapped to his thigh. He was sentenced to death the following year and, having spent more than 12 years on death row, was told he would face execution on 10 November.

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Few willing to change lifestyle to save the planet, climate survey finds

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Exclusive: poll of 10 countries including US, UK, France and Germany finds people prioritising measures that are already habits

Citizens are alarmed by the climate crisis, but most believe they are already doing more to preserve the planet than anyone else, including their government, and few are willing to make significant lifestyle changes, an international survey has found.

“The widespread awareness of the importance of the climate crisis illustrated in this study has yet to be coupled with a proportionate willingness to act,” the survey of 10 countries including the US, UK, France and Germany, observed.

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Covid live: Vallance warns of ‘difficult UK winter’; Moscow in partial lockdown amid record Russian cases, deaths

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Chief scientific adviser to UK government says high level of cases ‘remains a concern’; Russia records over 40,000 new cases and record 1,159 Covid deaths

Stephen Reicher is a member of the Sage subcommittee in the UK advising on behavioural science, and he writes for us this morning saying that Covid measures give us choice – they are not restrictions on British life:

Regarding ventilation, I would institute a system whereby all public spaces were required to indicate their “clean air” status, just as kitchens in restaurants are required to indicate their hygiene status. I would also improve the messaging so that people know how important it is and how to know when they are safe. This wouldn’t amount to a restriction. It’s a protection. It doesn’t limit choice. On the contrary, in increasing the number of spaces that are safe, it gives us more choice.

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Coronavirus live: WHO warns indoor socialising driving infections; Russia sees ‘isolated cases’ of Delta subvariant

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Indoor socialising in winter behind rise in cases, WHO warns; AY.4.2 subvariant may be around 10% more infectious than the original Delta

In the UK Labour’s shadow culture secretary Jo Stevens – she is MP for Cardiff Central – has been on Sky News, and has been highly critical of the government’s approach to rising Covid numbers in the UK, accusing the health secretary Sajid Javid of an “element of complacency” in his press conference yesterday. She said:

It’s a serious situation we’re in. Rising infection rates, rising hospitalisation rates, and suddenly rising death rates. And what we want to see and have pressed the government to do is to demonstrate their plan for dealing with this ahead of the winter situation.

The NHS is under pressure.

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Coronavirus news live: minister rules out England lockdown as NHS chief says ‘overwhelming evidence’ action needed

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Kwasi Kwarteng says talk of restrictions ‘unhelpful’ as NHS boss says health service faces ‘perfect storm’

Chief executive of the NHS confederation Matthew Taylor has been on Sky News in the UK, and he had a strong message in support of the government taking steps towards “plan B” and take some action to avert a healthcare crisis over the winter. He said

The question is do we need to act? And I would say the overwhelming evidence is we do need to act, and then the question is, is it better to act early and take measures which don’t stop the economy working – but I recognise they are inconvenient – or do we wait, wait for things to get worse, and possibly risk having to take more severe measures.

So, the elements of plan B enable us to carry on with our lives, carry on with the economy, but to do so in a way which produces the risk. And after all, most of the measures in plan B are measures that other countries in Europe are continuing to enact, and they have lower infection rates than we do.

The government said that the criteria for determining whether or not we enacted elements of plan B was the position of the health service, and the health service is facing a perfect storm.

Winter is always tough for the health service for various reasons. We have got thousands of Covid patients in hospital, and it looks like those numbers are rising in line with the rising infection rate. And we’ve also got the huge pent-up demand that’s built up over the last 18 months.

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Local Covid vaccines fill gap as UN Covax scheme misses target

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India, Egypt and Cuba among first states to develop and make their own vaccines as Covax falls behind

Developing countries are increasingly turning to homegrown Covid vaccinations as the UN-backed Covax programme falls behind.

While western countries roll out booster jabs to their own populations, Covax, which was set up by UN agencies, governments and donors to ensure fair access to Covid-19 vaccines for low- and middle-income countries, has said it will miss its target to distribute 2bn doses globally by the end of this year.

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Singapore’s new ‘foreign interference’ law leaves journalists like me with an impossible puzzle | Kirsten Han

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The Singapore government is now free to act on suspicions of foreign influence, and their targets will struggle to clear their names

Singapore’s parliament has passed a controversial anti-foreign interference bill, just three weeks after its first reading on 13 September.

It was only to be expected that the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Bill, or Fica, would pass – the ruling People’s Action Party has had a supermajority in parliament for decades, allowing them to push whatever legislation they want through the House. But the concerns that activists, journalists, academics and legal practitioners had before the bill’s passage persist.

Kirsten Han is a freelance journalist who runs the newsletter We, The Citizens, covering Singapore from a rights-based perspective.

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Coronavirus treatments: the potential ‘game-changers’ in development

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After positive clinical trials for antiviral drug Molnupiravir, it joins other medicines that have shown promise

The first clinical trial results showing a positive effect for a pill that can be taken at home has been hailed as a potential gamechanger that could provide a new way to protect the most vulnerable people from the worst effects of Covid-19. Molnupiravir joins a growing list of medicines that have shown promise. Here are some of the main developments in treatments so far.

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How are Australia’s neighbours faring in the Covid pandemic?

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Vaccination rates are rising in much of south-east Asia and the Pacific after recent outbreaks, but some of the largest countries are falling behind

While Australians have focused on the Covid waves in Sydney and Melbourne, many of Australia’s neighbours have recently experienced their largest outbreaks so far. This includes Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu and even Singapore.

Singapore surpassed Australia’s vaccination target weeks ago, but was now seeing more than a thousand cases a day. Fiji recently had one of the highest rates of Covid cases per capita – peaking at 1,850 cases in the middle of July. But the nation of 889,000 was now regularly administering more than 10,000 new vaccinations a day.

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Singapore reports worst daily Covid case tally in more than a year

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Government pauses reopening plans after 837 new daily infections, despite just four deaths in a month among 80% vaccinated population

Singapore has reported its highest one-day Covid case total in more than a year, with 837 cases recorded on Tuesday.

In response to the growing outbreak, the government has paused reopening plans and reimposed some restrictions.

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Kamala Harris Vietnam trip delayed after two US officials report Havana syndrome

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Press secretary says assessment of safety of vice-president was carried out and she continued her journey

US vice-president Kamala Harris’ trip from Singapore to Vietnam was delayed by several hours on Tuesday by an investigation into two possible cases of the so-called Havana syndrome in Hanoi, administration officials said.

The investigation was in its early stages and officials deemed it safe for Harris to make her scheduled stop in Vietnam, which is part of her trip across Asia meant to reassure allies about American foreign policy amid the tumultuous evacuation of US forces from Afghanistan.

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Kamala Harris accuses Beijing of ‘coercion’ and ‘intimidation’ in South China Sea

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In major speech delivered in Singapore, US vice president says America stands with its allies in the Indo Pacific in the face of threats from China

US vice president Kamala Harris has delivered a sharp rebuke to China for its incursions in the South China Sea, warning its actions there amount to “coercion” and “intimidation” and affirming that the US will support its allies in the region against Beijing’s advances.

“We know that Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea,” she said in a major foreign policy speech Tuesday in Singapore in which she laid out the Biden administration’s vision for the Indo-Pacific. “Beijing’s actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations.”

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‘Horrific’: Singaporean woman jailed for 30 years after maid tortured and killed

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Judge says Gaiyathiri Murugayan was mentally ill but understood what she was doing in abusing Piang Ngaih Don from Myanmar

Singapore’s high court has sentenced a woman to 30 years in prison for killing her Burmese maid after more than a year of abuse that included starving, torture and beatings.

Singaporean Gaiyathiri Murugayan pleaded guilty in February to culpable homicide among 28 charges related to her abuse of Piang Ngaih Don, who was 24 and subjected to 14 months of beating that culminated in her death in 2016.

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