Tag: Singapore

Covid-19: China’s plan to show off its vaccine backfires
26Jan By Joanne SerriehNo Comments
China, Singapore

Covid-19: China’s plan to show off its vaccine backfires

China wanted to showcase its scientific prowess and deliver a geopolitical win with its coronavirus vaccine. However, that plan is facing severe backlash in some places.Officials in Brazil and Turkey have complained that Chinese companies have been slow to ship the doses and ingredients.A few reports also suggest that China’s vaccines, while considered effective, cannot stop the virus as well as those developed by Pfizer and Moderna, the American drugmakers.In the Philippines, some lawmakers have criticized the government’s decision to buy a vaccine made by a Chinese company, Sinovac.Officials in Malaysia and Singapore, which ordered doses from Sinovac, have had to reassure their citizens that they would approve a vaccine only if it had been proved safe and effective.“Right now, I would no
Read More
Singaporean pleads guilty to working for Chinese intelligence
4Aug By Grace TsoiNo Comments
Singapore, World

Singaporean pleads guilty to working for Chinese intelligence

The US Department of Justice in a statement on July 24 said that a Singaporean national has pleaded guilty to using his political consultancy in the United States as a front to collect information for Chinese intelligence.The department said that Jun Wei Yeo, who is also known as Dickson Yeo, entered his plea in federal court in Washington, DC to one charge of operating illegally as a foreign agent. “Yeo was central to a Chinese government scheme to obtain sensitive information from US citizens,” the department said."In response to taskings from his Chinese intelligence contacts, Yeo worked to spot and assess Americans with access to valuable non-public information, including US military and government employees with high-level security clearances," it said.“He then paid some of those indi
Read More
Gwadar port contract is ‘confidential’, Pakistani federal secretary informs Senate panel
20Jun By Yusara AskariNo Comments
Asia

Gwadar port contract is ‘confidential’, Pakistani federal secretary informs Senate panel

Pakistan’s Senate standing committee on finance led by Senator Farooq Hamid Naek on Thursday was left shocked when a federal secretary declared that the contract governing affairs of the Gwadar port was “confidential” and its particulars couldn’t be disclosed publicly.The Senate panel on Wednesday had requested federal Secretary of Maritime Affairs Rizwan Ahmed to share copies of contracts and associated paperwork on award of contracts and sub-contracts concerning Gwadar free zone.In response, Ahmed said that the paperwork couldn’t be shared with the Senate committee chairman and skim out one paragraph from the settlement which says the contents of the settlement might be stored confidential.Senators Dr Musadik Malik, Ayesha Raza, Talha Mehmood and Ateeq Shaikh expressed their anger and di
Read More
[South East Asia] Malaysia, Singapore agree to defer HSR project until December 31
17Jun By Our NewsroomNo Comments
Asia, Singapore, World

[South East Asia] Malaysia, Singapore agree to defer HSR project until December 31

Malaysia and Singapore on Sunday came to an agreement and said that they have decided to defer the long-awaited Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project again until the end of the year.The construction of the 350km-long HSR project has been suspended since September 2018 and was due to resume at the end of May.The update comes after Singapore Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan on Friday said that Singapore was considering Malaysia’s request to extend the suspension period of the project.In a Facebook post, Khaw wrote that Malaysia had requested a seven-month extension to allow both sides to discuss and assess Malaysia’s proposed changes to the project."In the spirit of bilateral cooperation, we have agreed to a final extension of the suspension period to 31 December 2020," said K
Read More
Malaysia minister says ‘news’ that Singaporeans not welcomed is fake
14Jun By Grace TsoiNo Comments
Singapore

Malaysia minister says ‘news’ that Singaporeans not welcomed is fake

Malaysia's Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob has fallen victim to fake news claiming that he does not welcome Singaporeans to the country."The truth is, our borders are still closed to everyone, including Singaporeans, so such news is malicious," he said at his daily briefing on Malaysia's coronavirus situation yesterday. "This act can sour the relationship between Malaysia and our neighbour Singapore."Sabri also noted that his voice had been doctored in the offending tweet."I have lodged a report with the police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC)," he said.Malaysia has closed its borders to foreigners since March 18, when it implemented a partial shutdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.Although, it has since eased movement restrictions ...
Read More
Minister assures contact-tracing device will not track location of Singapore citizens
8Jun By Grace TsoiNo Comments
Singapore

Minister assures contact-tracing device will not track location of Singapore citizens

The wearable device for contact tracing in development by the Government to help curb the spread of Covid-19 will not track an individual's location, and those who prefer to use Singapore's contact-tracing app TraceTogether will still be able to do so, said Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative Vivian Balakrishnan.“The device, which may be issued to everyone here, will be a small device that people can slip into their bag or pocket,” he said in the comments thread of a post on his Facebook page on Sunday.The announcement of this device comes after news that TraceTogether, which identifies people in close contact with a coronavirus patient via wireless Bluetooth technology, does not work well with Apple devices.The app is useful when those infected cannot recall whom they had be
Read More
Racially insensitive acts not condoned, but Singapore and US situations are different: Singapore Education Minister
7Jun By Grace TsoiNo Comments
Singapore

Racially insensitive acts not condoned, but Singapore and US situations are different: Singapore Education Minister

Young people in Singapore are doing the right thing by standing up against racial insensitivity, said Minister for Education Ong Ye Kung on Saturday.He was speaking about a photo of a birthday celebration taken in 2016 which depicted Raffles Institution students with their faces painted black.In a Facebook post, Ong stressed that such acts of “racial insensitivity or micro-aggression against a person” of another race are not condoned, but urged people to also be mindful of how the situation in Singapore differs from that in the United States, which erupted in nationwide protests after an unarmed black man was suffocated in police custody on May 25.The photo resurfaced on social media recently, depicted a group of Chinese students, some with their faces painted black and some wearing black
Read More
Singapore awards death sentence via Zoom video call
20May By Our NewsroomNo Comments
Singapore

Singapore awards death sentence via Zoom video call

 A man in Singapore was awarded death sentence via a Zoom video-call for the crime involving a drug deal, the city-state’s first case where capital punishment has been delivered remotely.The convict, Punithan Genasan, a 37-year-old Malaysian, got the death penalty for his role in a 2011 heroin transaction on Friday, court documents showed, with the country under lockdown to try and curb one of the highest coronavirus rates in Asia.“For the safety of all involved in the proceedings, the hearing for Public Prosecutor v Punithan A/L Genasan was conducted by video-conferencing,” a spokesperson for Singapore’s Supreme Court said in response to Reuters’ questions, citing restrictions imposed to minimize virus spread.It was the first criminal case where a death sentence was pronounced by remote h
Read More
Number of Coronavirus patients increases in Singapore
15May By Our NewsroomNo Comments
Singapore

Number of Coronavirus patients increases in Singapore

Singapore has seen the number of cases of the novel coronavirus increasing substantially --  about in April to 26,098 now-- and the vast majority are migrant workers, many from South and Southeast Asian countries like Bangladesh and India, who were infected in crowded dormitories.Significant workforce of the Singapore-- 1.4 million migrant workers-- live in the city state, mostly employed in construction, manual labor and housekeeping. Of these, about 200,000 live in 43 dormitories, according to Minister of Manpower Josephine Teo.Every dorm room houses about 10 to 20 residents. They share toilet and shower facilities, eat in common areas, and sleep just feet away from each other. It's nearly impossible to conduct social distancing -- the consequences of which became clear in April when Sin
Read More