Category: General

Search-and-rescue teams in the southern Philippines province of Maguindanao said Friday that flash floods and landslides spawned by Tropical Storm Nalgae had left at least 42 people dead, with the toll expected to rise.

Regional minister Naguib Sinarimbo said most of the victims were in three towns in the hard-hit province. He said preparations had been made but the rains were more intense than expected.

In a telephone interview with the Reuters news agency, Sinarimbo said rescue- and-retrieval operations had been suspended overnight Friday and would resume Saturday morning. He also said many more people were feared still trapped under mud and floodwaters, particularly in the town of Datu Odin.

Civil defense and coast guard officials said they used rubber boats to rescue residents trapped by floodwaters in the southern province of Sultan Kudarat. Coast guard officials also canceled ferry service and sea travel through much of the archipelago that makes up the nation.

Forecasters said late Friday that Tropical Storm Nalgae was about 180 kilometers east of Samar province with sustained winds of up to 85 kilometers per hour and was moving northwest. It was expected to make landfall on Samar Island late Friday and was forecast to track over the Bicol peninsula early Saturday.

Officials said at least 5,000 people had been evacuated as a precaution ahead of the storm.

 

Source: Voice of America

Managers of a Bangkok publishing house known for its releases critical of China say they were twice approached by representatives of a Chinese businessman offering them large sums of money to shut down their business.

 

The representatives, who identified themselves as employees of a private investigative firm, reportedly told the publishers that their client was not acting on behalf of the Chinese government but was hoping to curry favor with authorities in Beijing.

 

Sam Yan Press is an independent publisher founded in 2017 by student activists at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University and managed by five individuals. It is known for books and translated works focusing on freedom of speech, human rights and democracy, which include critical views on the Chinese central government.

 

Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, a Thai activist and founder of Sam Yan Press, told VOA he received an email in May from a Bangkok investigator who wanted to arrange a meeting between the publishers and a Chinese businessman. Netiwit said he and his team ignored the communication, believing it to be fraud.

 

In July, according to an online posting by the publishing group, the investigator approached another member of the management team with an email saying the Chinese businessman wanted to offer Sam Yan Press 4 million baht ($105,540) to shut down the operation.

 

The businessman’s purpose, the investigator explained, was to show the Chinese government that he had influence in Thailand.

 

In September, the group’s posting said the management team received yet another email from the investigative firm. This time they were offered $52,770 (2 million baht) if they would sign a “dissolution document” shutting down the business.

 

After consulting a lawyer, the Sam Yan team arranged a meeting where, the posting said, a representative of the investigation agency confirmed the email offer. It was rejected by the student activists, who said it would be a “betrayal” of what they stand for.

 

“They said that [they wanted] an official document of the dissolution of the company, just the document,” said Jirapreeya Saeboo, the managing editor of Sam Yan Press, who was at that meeting.

 

“They would deliver the document to the client, which is the Chinese businessman, just to have [Chinese officials] thinking he has influence in Thailand in order to make good relations with the Chinese government,” she told VOA.

 

The management team received additional email from the investigative firm on October 2 asserting that the businessman was not a member of the Chinese government and containing a copy of his passport. Sam Yan Press again rejected the offer.

 

Sam Yan Press named SkyInter Legal as the Bangkok-based private investigation agency that contacted them with both proposals.

 

VOA has repeatedly contacted SkyInter Legal seeking comment about the allegations but has yet to receive a reply.

 

“I think it’s because we have been publishing Thai books about Chinese politics and about the dissidents, about Hong Kong, Joshua Wong, about the repression in Xinjiang and recently about Taiwan’s independence,” Jirapreeya said.

 

“We actually feel intimidated, but we will not change, we will still continue publishing and updating about Chinese politics and other issues as well as we did before. But we will have to train more about how to secure ourselves.”

 

There have been concerns over China’s growing influence in Thailand in recent years, from politics to trade.

 

Pravit Rojanaphruk, a veteran journalist with the news website Khaosod English said he worries that the incident could affect relations between the two countries.

 

“It’s hope[d] that China will be astute enough to not resort to less than honorable tactics for it’s bad PR in the eyes of Thais. Thailand is a friend of China. Do not ruin cordial and warm ties by trying to bully Thais who think differently. Respect press freedom. This is Thailand, not China,” he said in an interview.

 

Wasana Wongsurawat, an associate professor at Chulalongkorn University, doesn’t believe the approach was commissioned by the Chinese government.

 

“My feeling was that the reality is we live in a society where if the Chinese Communist government wanted Sam Yan Press disappeared, they could easily make them disappear. I don’t think this businessperson, whoever he is, came with a mandate from the [Chinese Communist] party,” Wongsurawat said.

 

“This offer of 2 million baht, or 4 million baht seems really bizarre. I don’t believe for a moment that money is going to be produced if Sam Yan Press decided to shut down. If you follow the intimidation tactics of the Chinese state across the world, you don’t hear about this too much,” she added.

 

Krittapas Chedjaroenrat, the executive editor of Sam Yan Press, said the publisher felt it was necessary to publicly announce the unusual approach to raise public awareness.

 

Otherwise, he said, “We don’t know in the future if we … [will] still be safe. For the best, I think we should publish, to at least guarantee to society and acknowledge we have faced this before.”

 

A timeline of the events has been published on the Sam Yan Press Twitter account, as well as a full statement on its website.

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Cambodian National Police (CNP) launched joint investigations and traced two victims of staged kidnap scam in two separate cases on 21 and 25 October 2022.

 

In the first case, the Police received a report on 19 October 2022 that a 21-year-old man had allegedly been kidnapped. He is a university student in Singapore and has been residing in Singapore for at least four years. The parents of the victim, who were based in China, received a video of the victim with his hands bound and numerous ransom demands from an unknown person. Fearing for their son’s safety, they made a police report in Singapore. Officers from Tanglin Division, Criminal Investigation Department, Police Intelligence Department and Commercial Affairs Department conducted extensive searches and investigations to locate the victim and established that he had left Singapore. On 21 October 2022, with assistance from the CNP as well as the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the victim was located at Phnom Penh and reunited with his family.

 

Investigations revealed that while in Singapore, the victim had received an unsolicited call from a scammer who claimed to be a police officer from China. The scammer informed the victim that his particulars had been misused to spread misinformation about monkeypox cases in China. The scammer demanded that the victim assists in the Chinese Police’s investigations and tasked the victim to travel to Cambodia to carry out certain missions as part of their investigations. Upon the victim’s arrival in Phnom Penh, the victim was instructed by the scammer to record videos of himself masquerading as a kidnap victim for the purposes of scam education and investigations. He was also instructed to stay at different hotels and to cease all communication with his family and friends. The scammer then misused these videos, sending them to the victim’s parents to demand a ransom of RMB 2,000,000. No ransom was paid.

 

In the second case, the Police received a report on 22 October 2022 that a 22-year-old man had allegedly been kidnapped. The victim is a university student in Singapore and had been residing in Singapore for at least three years. The victim’s parents, who were based in China, received a video of the victim with his hands bound, along with ransom demands from an unknown person communicating in Mandarin. The victim’s parents similarly lodged a police report in Singapore. Officers from Ang Mo Kio Division, Criminal Investigation Department, Police Intelligence Department and Commercial Affairs Department conducted extensive searches and investigations to locate the victim and established that he had left Singapore. On 25 October 2022, with assistance from the CNP as well as the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the victim was located at a hotel located at Phnom Penh, Cambodia and reunited with his family.

 

Investigations revealed that while in Singapore, the victim had also received an unsolicited call from a scammer who claimed to be a police officer from China. The victim was accused of having a mobile number registered in his name that was associated in the spread of COVID-19-related rumours in Guangdong, China. The scammer demanded the victim to render cooperation in the investigations and later tasked the victim to travel to Cambodia to carry out missions as part of Police investigations. Upon the victim’s arrival in Phnom Penh,  the victim was instructed by the scammer to record videos of himself masquerading as a kidnap victim for the purposes of scam education and investigations. He was also instructed to stay at different hotels and to cease all communication with his family and friends. The scammer then sent the videos to the victim’s parents to demand a ransom of RMB 800,000. No ransom was paid.

 

Police investigations into both cases are ongoing.

 

Mr David Chew, Director of the Commercial Affairs Department, said, “The exercise of Police powers is an exercise of State powers. Overseas law enforcement agencies do not have any legal powers to conduct investigations in Singapore without the approval of the Singapore Government. Demands made by overseas law enforcement officers requesting victims to comply with their orders in Singapore, including orders to remit money overseas, transfer money into Singapore bank accounts, deliver documents in Singapore or travel overseas to carry out secret police missions are illegal, and should be ignored. Members of the public who are targeted by these criminals, especially foreign students in Singapore, are advised to check with the Singapore Police Force or call your Embassy or High Commission to verify the claims of the purported Police officers from your home country. As Police powers cannot be exercised outside our national borders, once victims or their money leaves Singapore, we have to rely on foreign authorities to help trace it and ensure the safety of victims. I would like to extend my appreciation to the Cambodian National Police for their strong support and assistance in locating and ensuring the safety of the two victims.”

 

The Police take a serious view against any person who may be involved in scams, whether knowingly or unwittingly. Anyone found to be involved in such scams will be subjected to police investigations.

 

The Police would like to advise members of public to take the following precautions when they receive unsolicited calls, especially from unknown parties with the “+” prefix phone numbers that originate from overseas:

 

 

 

Ignore such calls and the caller’s instructions. No government agency will instruct payment through a telephone call or other social messaging platforms (WeChat or Facebook), or ask you for personal banking information such as your internet banking passwords;

 

 

For foreigners receiving calls from persons claiming to be from Police in your home country, call your Embassy / High Commission to verify the claims of the caller;

 

 

Refrain from giving out your personal information and bank details, whether on the website or to callers over the phone. Personal information and bank details such as internet bank account usernames and passwords, OTP codes from tokens, are useful to criminals;

 

 

Do not make any fund transfers if the caller is of dubious identity;

 

 

Call a trusted friend or talk to a relative before you act. You may be overwhelmed by emotion and err in your judgement; and

 

 

If an overseas law enforcement officer is ordering you to do things in Singapore from overseas under the colour of their national office, hang up the call and check with the SPF.

 

 

If you have any information related to such crime, please call the Police Hotline at 1800-255 0000, or dial ‘999’ for urgent Police assistance.

 

To seek scam-related advice, members of the public may call the Anti-Scam Hotline at 1800-722-6688 or go to www.scamalert.sg. Please share this advisory with your family and friends to prevent them from being the next scam victim.

 

 

Source: Singapore Police Force

HANOI– The Vietnam Motor Show 2022, kicked off yesterday, in the country’s southern Ho Chi Minh City, with more than 120 models displayed.

 

The event, held after a two-year hiatus, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, attracted participation of 14 brands, namely Audi, Brabus, Honda, Jeep, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi Motors, Morgan, MG, RAM, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.

 

It also marks the first-time participation of vehicles from well-known brands, including trucks, large capacity vehicles and electric vehicles.

 

A seminar about green technology in the auto industry will also be held during the five-day event.

 

The show aims to bring high-quality products to consumers, and contribute to the development of Vietnam’s automobile industry, Laurent Genet, a representative from the Vehicles Importers Vietnam Association, was quoted as saying.

 

The car ownership rate in Vietnam is about 23 cars per 1,000 people, and the trend of automobilisation is expected to grow in the future, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

 

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

MANILA– A 6.4-magnitude quake that hit the northern Philippines late Tuesday night, injured at least 36 people and damaged buildings, the military said, yesterday.

 

Lt. Col. Elmar Salvador, spokesperson of the military’s northern command, said, the injured are from the Ilocos Norte and Abra provinces on the main Luzon island.

 

He said, no one died but the earthquake damaged several houses, century-old churches, school buildings and hospitals.

 

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, initially reported the earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.7. It hit at 22:59 local time (1459 GMT) at a depth of 28 km, about seven km north-west of Tineg town, in Abra province on Luzon Island.

 

The institute then lowered the quake’s magnitude to 6.4 a few hours later, adding, it struck at a depth of 13 km, about seven km north-east of Lagayan town in Abra province.

 

The institute said, it recorded over 400 aftershocks since the major quake.

 

The impact of the tremor was felt in several areas, including the capital, Manila. According to local reports, people who were asleep or about to sleep rushed out of their shaking houses.

 

In July, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake also jolted Abra province, killing at least four people, injuring over 130 others, and triggering landslides and damaging buildings.

 

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

The U.N. special rapporteur for Myanmar warns that unless the international community changes how it deals with the military junta in that country, the already catastrophic situation will only get worse.

“There’s no coordination, there’s no strategy. There’s no focus. And as a result, these don’t add up to any kind of a coherent whole,” Tom Andrews told VOA of the various sanctions and arms embargoes imposed by some countries.

The humanitarian situation has rapidly deteriorated in Myanmar since the military ousted the country’s democratically elected government in February 2021. The power grab took place following days of tension between the military and the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), which won the November 2020 elections. The military refused to accept the results, alleging massive election fraud.

Since its takeover, the military leadership has sought to suppress protests and silence critics, jailing journalists, members of civil society, human rights defenders and political opponents.

“Thousands and thousands of people have been killed. Tens of thousands have been detained,” Andrews said. “Many of them are children. People have been tortured, including children. And we see that the brutality of this military junta knows no bounds.”

Military strikes

Last month, a military helicopter opened fire on a school in the northwestern Sagaing Region, killing 13 people, including seven children. Earlier this week, the military bombed the site of a concert where hundreds were celebrating the anniversary of the founding of the Kachin Independence Organization. At least 50 people were killed.

Andrews, an independent human rights expert whose mandate comes from the U.N. Human Rights Council, delivered his annual report Wednesday to the General Assembly committee that deals with human rights.

He singled out Myanmar’s civil society, human rights defenders and journalists as “heroes” who are risking their lives to document atrocities and deserve international support. The junta, he said, has committed crimes against humanity and war crimes.

There was no response to Andrew’s report from Myanmar’s military rulers, who are not currently represented at the U.N. When Andrews presented his report, the representative for Myanmar’s democratically elected government, which still has U.N. credentials, spoke and echoed the special rapporteur’s findings.

Andrews recommended that countries form a coalition to implement a coordinated strategy to deprive the military of arms and fuel for their aircraft, financing, and the legitimacy the junta seeks.

That includes not assisting or recognizing planned elections next year, which he said the military wants to use to solidify its hold on power. Andrews said a free, fair and inclusive vote would be impossible in the current conditions.

“You cannot have an election when you incarcerate, torture and execute the opposition,” he said. “You can’t have an election where it’s illegal to criticize the junta. This is outrageous. So, it’s important that governments not give any kind of legitimacy to this fraud by providing any kind of assistance whatsoever.”

Foreign ministers from regional bloc ASEAN are holding a special meeting Thursday on the situation in Myanmar. In April 2021, the 10-member bloc came up with a “five-point consensus” to end the fighting and move to dialogue. Myanmar military chief Min Aung Hlaing agreed to the package of proposals but has failed to implement it.

The special rapporteur said he was encouraged that there has been some criticism within ASEAN members about the five-point consensus and that there is discussion of new strategies.

Andrews said he had not been able to establish contact with ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi or President U Win Myint, who have been jailed by the junta. He does have ongoing engagement with the national unity government. As for contacts with the military leadership, he said he had sought entry into Myanmar but had been rejected.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

MANILA, Oct 26 (NNN-PNA) – An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7, jolted northern Philippines last night, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said, adding that, it might cause damage.

 

The institute said, the quake, which occurred at 22:59 local time (1459 GMT), hit at a depth of 28 km, about seven km north-west of Tineg town of Abra province, on the main island of Luzon.

 

The quake was also felt in nearby areas, including the Ilocos Sur province and Baguio city, said the institute.

 

It said, the tectonic quake will trigger aftershocks. There were no early reports of damage or casualties. No tsunami alert has yet been issued.

 

The Philippines has frequent seismic activity, due to its location along the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”

 

In July, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0, also hit Abra province, causing landslides and damaging buildings, leaving at least four people dead and 130 injured.

 

 

Source: Nam News Network

HELSINKI– A one-million-euro-technology prize, has been awarded to an Australian professor, for an invention that has transformed the production of solar energy.

 

Technology Academy Finland (TAF), announced yesterday that, the 2022 Millennium Technology Prize has been awarded to Professor Martin Green, from the University of New South Wales. The prize was awarded to Green by Finnish President, Sauli Niinisto.

 

“The pace of the green transition is accelerating, and the world will switch to solar and wind electricity in the coming decade. I believe that a huge, historically significant change is taking place,” said Green at the award ceremony.

 

Green is regarded as a leader in the development of the “Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell (PERC).”

 

The PERC has become the most commercially viable and efficient silicon solar cell technology used in solar panels, and for large-scale electricity production. It accounts for almost 90 percent of the global solar cell market.

 

The innovation has greatly reduced the cost of using solar panels, making solar energy more affordable than fossil-based alternatives. PERCs mean homes do not need to be connected to the grid to receive energy supply, which is helpful for remote communities.

 

Green and his team are currently working on combined cell technologies, to achieve 40 percent solar cell efficiency, by exploring options such as stacking cells on top of each other.

 

Professor Minna Palmroth, chair of the Board of Technology Academy Finland, said that, Green’s innovation will continue to improve the quality of life of billions of people globally, and enhance environmentally sustainable development.

 

The Millennium Technology Prize, awarded once every two years, was created by the Finnish government in 2002, to honour individuals and groups that have made significant contributions to the fields of science and technology, and particularly to highlight innovations that enrich everyday life.

 

Source: Nam News Network