Circle Line disrupted this morning, 1,400 passengers affected

Train services on some Circle Line stations were disrupted at 6am on Wednesday, affecting 1,400 passengers.

SMRT cites a communication network problem.

This is the second disruption since the line was fully opened this year and the eighth since its phased opening in 2009.



Those who travelled between the Marymount and One-North MRT stations found themselves running late in their journeys.

The disruption began at 6am, and lasted just 40 minutes.

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Security guard snipes down robber armed with Steyr rifle

An armed robber was gunned down by a single shot fired by an alert security guard during a bank robbery.



Armed with an assault rifle, the suspect, in his 20s, was about to flee with a bag containing RM200,000 (S$81,986) when he was shot in the chest. He died instantly during the daring 3.15pm robbery in Taman Muda on Tuesday.

Police official Amiruddin Jamaluddin said police were still in the midst of identifying the suspect, clad in a jacket and helmet with a visor.

He said they had seized the Steyr rifle and closed-circuit television footage to assist them in the investigation.

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Taiwan to reduce length of military service

Taiwan will reduce compulsory military service from one year to four months, the defence ministry said Wednesday, in what is widely seen as a first step towards scrapping conscription altogether.



Benefiting from improved ties with mainland China, the island's young men will have to spend shorter time in uniform beginning from early 2015, after parliament passed an amendment to the conscription law late Tuesday, it said.

"We are gradually introducing a professional military, so there will be no holes in our defence capabilities," said David Lo, the defence ministry's spokesman.

The ministry plans to eventually maintain a permanent professional military of 215,000 soldiers, down from 275,000 conscripted and professional soldiers at present, he said.

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US soldier charged with raping teenager and stealing her laptop

A US soldier has been charged with raping a teenager and stealing her laptop computer.



The Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office said the private was accused of raping the 18-year-old in September after breaking into her room in Seoul.

The soldier had allegedly taken the girl home after they drank together overnight with two companions, before returning to her room later and raping her.

He has reportedly denied the charges, but prosecutors arrested him after securing DNA evidence.

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Amnesty says Saudi beheading of woman for sorcery 'shocking'

Saudi national Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser was executed on Monday in the northern province of al-Jawf after being tried and convicted for practising sorcery, the interior ministry said, without giving details of the charges.

'The citizen... practised acts of witchcraft and sorcery,' Saudi newspaper al-Watan cited the interior ministry as saying.' The death sentence was carried out on the accused on Monday in the Qurayyat district in al-Jawf region'.

Amnesty International has described this incident as 'deeply shocking'.



Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, has no written criminal code, which is instead based on an uncodified form of Islamic syariah law as interpreted by the country's judges.

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Cleaner jailed for keeping extra $54,000 in salary

A former cleaner who kept an extra $53,955 in salary was jailed for five months on Tuesday.



Ng Leong Chuan, 30, had resigned from his job and went to the company's office in Toa Payoh Central on Sept 6 to collect his final salary.

He was supposed to receive a cheque for $755 but was told by the co-owner of the coffeeshop operator, Song Huat Catering & Supplies, that he would only receive $545 after appropriate deductions.

Instead of keying in $545, the clerk mistakenly keyed in $54,500 when she issued a new cheque and handed it to Ng.

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Malaysia seizes hundreds of African elephant tusks

Following a tip-off, Malaysian authorities have seized hundreds of African elephant tusks worth RM4 million (S$1.6 million) that were being shipped to Cambodia.



Customs official Azis Yacub said inspectors at Port Klang harbour found the tusks hidden in containers of handicrafts from Kenya's Mombasa port. The shipment was headed for Cambodia's beach resort area of Sihanoukville.

Officials said the tusks weighed nearly two tonnes (1,815kg).

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Recycled cooking oil sold as new in Malaysia

The cooking oil that you buy at a Malaysian grocery store or a supermarket near you in a 1kg packet may have been recycled.



The Malaysian Association of Standards Users sent the samples for 'polar compound testing' to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, which found all 19 brands falling short of international standards, its chief executive officer Ratna Devi Nadarajan said.

Manufacturers are believed to have bought the oil used in restaurants through middlemen and processed it for resale. Tests conducted on the 'cheap' oil revealed that repeated exposure to high temperatures had made it unfit for human consumption.

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Lions XII gets favourable draw in Malaysia's FA Cup

The Malaysian FA Cup draw, which was made at the Bluewave Hotel in Shah Alam on Tuesday afternoon, was a favourable one for Singapore. They avoided the big guns, such as Kelantan, the reigning Malaysian Super League champions as well as Negri Sembilan and Selangor.



The Malaysian FA Cup will run alongside the main attraction, the Malaysian Super League, which kicks off on Jan 10 and ends on July 14.

The draw for the much-anticipated Malaysian Super League fixture list will be announced on Wednesday, with Singapore set to learn the identity of their first opponents at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Jan 10.

Lions XII's first game on Malaysian soil will be on Feb 18 when they take on university team UiTM FC in the first round of the Malaysian FA Cup. 

After the Malaysian Super League ends in July, the Malaysia Cup will kick off on Aug 20, with the final on Nov 3.

Timeline
10 Jan 2012: Malaysian Super League kicks off, Lions XII's first game will be at Jalan Besar Stadium
18 Feb 2012: Malaysian FA Cup kicks off, Lions XII takes on UiTM FC away
20 Aug 2012: Malaysia Cup kicks off

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Singapore sends off athletes to ASEAN Para Games

Singapore has sent 33 paralympic athletes to the ASEAN Para Games in Solo, Indonesia.

Accompanying the athletes are 24 officials.

The athletes will compete in athletics, badminton, swimming, table tennis and tenpin bowling.

About half the contingent for the ASEAN Para Games this year are below 21 years old.

This is Singapore's sixth outing at the Games, which is being held from December 12 to 22.

Among the medal hopefuls are swimmer Yip Pin Xiu and wheelchair racer Muhammad Firdaus Nordin.



Pin Xiu was Singapore's first paralympic gold medallist at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics, while Muhammad Firdaus was Singapore's first wheelchair racer to qualify for the Beijing 2008 Paralympics.

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Facebook aims to help prevent suicide

Facebook is making it easier for people who express suicidal thoughts on the social networking site to get help.

A program launching Tuesday enables users to instantly connect with a crisis counselor from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline through Facebook's "chat" messaging system.



If a friend spots a suicidal thought on someone's page, he/she can report it to Facebook by clicking a link next to the comment. Facebook then sends an email to the person who posted the comment encouraging that user to call the hotline or click a link for a confidential chat.

The service is Facebook's latest move aimed at improving safety on its site.

Facebook says the goal is to get a person in distress help as quickly as possible.

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Floods cause massive jam in Johor

Heavy rain caused Sungai Bunus (Bunus River) to overflow yesterday, followed by thigh-high floodwaters cutting off traffic along Jalan Tun Razak in front of the national library and causing massive traffic jams during peak hours.



According to a SMART Tunnel tweet update, the tunnel was closed to traffic to drain floodwaters at 4.38pm and was reopened at 6.30pm.

Over 30 children were stranded at a kindergarten in nearby Jalan Semarak near TM Training Centre due to the floods. Kuala Lumpur fire and rescue deployed two boats to take the children out of the premises.

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S'pore's 'Mother Teresa' dies

Despite her near-celebrity status for her tireless work in caring for the less privileged, Ms Teresa Hsu had shunned the public eye - up until her death last week.

Ms Hsu died last Wednesday at the age of 113 - she was Singapore's oldest living person - but news of her death only emerged this week in a posting on the website of Heart to Heart Service, a charity which Ms Hsu had set up.



"In accordance with her wish to depart quietly and peacefully, and her instructions not to make any announcement in the news media, as well as not to conduct or perform any rituals or ceremonies that will cause disturbance and inconvenience to others, she was cremated on the same day," said the statement by Mr Sharana Rao, her co-worker at Heart to Heart. "She has further instructed that no claim be made of her ash by whosoever."

Born to a poor family in China in 1898, Ms Hsu decided at age 47 to be a nurse and enrolled in a nursing college in London, even though the school only accepted students up to age 25.

She moved to Singapore in 1961, after she helped set up three homes for the elderly and two homes for young girls and neglected children in Ipoh.

Here, Ms Hsu founded a nursing home called Home of the Aged Sick with her sister Ursula Khow on a piece of land that the latter bought for her.

The home is now known as the Society for the Aged Sick. It has 244 beds on its current premises in Hougang, from the seven patients she started out with.

Ms Hsu retired at the age of 85. Post-retirement, Ms Hsu continued to serve in the social services sector, setting up Heart to Heart Service to deliver food and necessities to the needy elderly.

In recognition of her efforts, Ms Hsu - who was dubbed as Singapore's "Mother Teresa" - was given the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre's Special Recognition Award in 2008, as well as the Active Senior Citizen of the Year Award in 2003. 

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Papua New Guinea wakes up to two Prime Ministers

Governor-General Michael Ogio will uphold a Supreme Court ruling and swear in Sir Michael Somare, who was toppled while he was in Singapore for heart treatment, as the legitimate prime minister of Papua New Guinea.



However Mr Peter O'Neill, who replaced Mr Somare, is recognised by parliament as the legitimate prime minister and has rejected the court ruling, refusing to step down.

It remained unclear whether Mr O'Neill would recognise the swearing in, having been prevented by heavily-armed police from reaching the governor-general yesterday night to be sworn in after parliament again elected him prime minister.

Today, the speaker of the parliament also rejected the court ruling, saying Mr O'Neill was the legitimate prime minister having been constitutionally elected by parliament.

The political standoff, with Mr O'Neill in parliament and Mr Somare in a beachside hotel in the capital Port Moresby, has prompted calls for calm in the dusty port, much of which is controlled by gangs called "raskols".

"We have been urging calm on the part of all parties. The Papua New Guinea Defence Force has been directed to remain in barracks ... Violence would help nobody," Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd told Australian radio.

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Four injured in Petronas Terengganu plant fire

The fire incident occurred at Petronas Penapisan Terengganu Sdn Bhd at about 4.54pm Monday.



The company's Emergency Response Team was mobilised and the fire was extinguished within 15 minutes.

Two of the victims were sent to Dungun Hospital while the remaining two were admitted to Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital for treatment.

"Management is doing the necessary to facilitate the treatment and ensure the well-being of the victims. There was no visible damage to the equipment and surrounding structure... management is ensuring the area is safe before work resumes," the statement Tuesday said.

The statement also said it could not provide more details as investigations were being carried out.

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Video: Deadly firearm and grenade attack rocks Belgian city

A gunman has opened fire and thrown grenades from a rooftop in the centre of the Belgian city of Liege, killing at least three people and wounding 75; two of whom were teenage boys aged 15 and 17, while the third was a 75-year-old woman.



Terrorism was not a cause, officials said.

The attacker, Nordine Amrani had been asked to come for an interview at a police station in connection with certain charges against him.

A resident of Liege, he left home with a gun, a pistol and three grenades in a bag, prosecutors said.

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World's Top Ten Shoplifting Countries

Shoplifting is up in 2011, and 10 countries have been pinpointed as the worst offenders.

The survey is based on the cooperation of large retailers, and, as its author Josua Bamfield has admitted, its results are incomplete. Yet Bamfield says the results do accurately reflect the trend, scope and global ranking of the problem.



According to the index, the highest risk sectors were accessories and outerwear, while few thieves were interested in fresh meat or cheese.

The lowest-ranking countries on this year's Global Retail Theft Barometer were Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. While the Top Ten worst-ranking countries are...

10. U.S.
9. Malaysia
8. Turkey
7. Thailand
6. Mexico
5. Brazil
4. South Africa
3. Morocco
2. Russia
1. India

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