Fire breaks out at Marine Parade Hotel (pics and vid)

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11 injured in fire at East Village Hotel
Eleven people -- four children, five adults and two fire-fighters -- were injured in a fire at East Village Hotel at Marine Parade Road on Monday.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said the injured have been sent to the Singapore General Hospital.

The fire broke out at the hotel in the morning. SCDF confirmed that it received a call at 9.06am about the incident.

Viewers who called the Channel NewsAsia hotline said the hotel, located at 25 Marine Parade Road, was engulfed in thick, black smoke.

One motorist, Mr Tan, said visibility along East Coast Road was also affected by the smoke.

It is believed that the fire started in the hotel basement.

Fire breaks out at East Village Hotel
A fire broke out at the former Paramount Hotel in Katong this morning at 8.30am, turning the air in the area thick black with smoke.

According to the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), there were 11 casualties, including four children.

The children and five adults suffered from smoke inhalation and were conveyed to the Singapore General Hospital (SGH). Two others were SCDF personal who were also sent to SGH - one had heat exhaustion, while the other had minor injuries.

A total of 50 people - including the nine casualties - were evacuated from the East Village Hotel, said SCDF.



Firefighters put out Marine Parade hotel fire
Firefighters have put out a major fire at the East Village Hotel, formerly known as Paramount Hotel, at Marine Parade.

The five-hour blaze, which started around 830am and is believed to have started in the basement of the hotel, sent plumes of dark smoke into the sky throughout most of the the morning.

Marine Parade fire now under control
The fire that engulfed East Village Hotel in Marine Parade is now under control, according to an SCDF spokesman.

However, challenges to extinguishing it remains, the spokesman told The Straits Times.

Teacher threw SD cards, laptop in 'hidden cam' case

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http://www.edvantage.com.sg/edvantage/news/news/1201416/Teacher_threw_SD_cards_laptop_in_cover_up_bid.html

For ten years, he was a respected teacher at a secondary school.

But Bertrand Ngien Wen-Tseah, 37, hid a dark, dirty secret. He was a peeping Tom.

Instead of respecting and protecting the girls in his school, he leered at them in their most private moments.

Ngien had a well-worked routine. In the morning, he would leave pin-hole cameras carefully hidden in a girls' toilet, which was also used by staff members.

At the end of the work day, he would collect the SD memory card for his viewing pleasure.

Close to tears, Ngien pleaded guilty yesterday to three charges, including insulting the modesty of a woman, for offences committed on Feb 15. Another five charges are being taken into consideration.

What was even more troubling is the thought and planning that he put into his crimes and his attempts to cover up later. Ngien got rid of the evidence when the cameras were discovered.

Ngien, who taught at a secondary school in Jurong, had hidden a pin-hole camera at each of the three cubicles inside a female toilet at 7am on Feb 15

At 1pm, Ngien realised the cameras had been discovered when he walked past the school's general office and noticed the cameras on the table of the operations manager.

The cameras contained footage of victims not just from that day, but also from an earlier occasion.

Ngien decided to hide his crime.

He waited till there was no one in the general office and, at about 2pm, entered the operations manager's room. He removed the memory cards from the cameras and left the school.

When the operations manager returned to his room, he realised the cards were missing.

Checking the entry and exit records to his office via the school's card reader system, he discovered that Ngien had accessed the office.

School authorities called Ngien at about 4pm, demanding he return to school immediately.

Ngien did so an hour later, but not before throwing the memory cards into a canal.

He was then interviewed by the principal, vice-principal and other senior teachers, and admitted to placing the cameras and removing the cards.

The principal said she would be making a police report and told him to go home.

Ngien left but took a laptop issued to him by the Ministry of Education - the same laptop he had used to view his movies - and threw it down the kitchen rubbish chute at his Clementi home.

The other two charges he faced yesterday were destroying evidence and mischief by destroying the laptop.

At the time of his offences, Ngien's wife had been hospitalised several months for psychological problems.

Ngien is now receiving treatment from both a psychiatrist and a psychologist.

A medical report to the court stated he had depression and suggested that he may have voyeuristic tendencies as well.

Sentencing has been postponed to July 25.

For insulting the modesty of a woman, Ngien may bejailed for up to a year, or fined, or both.

World champion poisoned, battled back to health, now competing for gold again

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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_sports/view/1213752/1/.html

Ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, life seemed golden for Russia's freestyle wrestling star Bilyal Makhov.

A 1.94 metre tall man-mountain from the Caucasus, conquering all before him in the 125 kg weight division, Makhov was reigning Russian and world champion.

But then disaster struck.

At one of the Olympic warm-up tournaments in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Makhov suddenly felt unwell and was unable to compete.

He was rushed to the local hospital where the medics gave an extraordinary diagnosis -- mercury poisoning. This was later confirmed after testing in a Moscow clinic.

The doctors said that Makhov received a dose of mercury vapour which could have killed an ordinary man. But Makhov managed to battle back and stay alive.

The Dagestan-based Makhov, now 24, staged a full recovery and is now one of Russia's best chances for gold at the London Games. But the origin of the poisoning remains a mystery.



He refuses to suspect any of his rivals who were in contention for a place in the country's Olympic squad at the time and says he has now put the terrifying incident behind him.

"How can I suspect any of my comrades as we lived under the same roof, practiced together day by day and ate the same food?" he said.

"I don't want to be disappointed in my friends. I just want to forget the incident as soon as possible."

After rehabilitation, Makhov continued his attempts to qualify for the Beijing Games but his bad luck continued as he injured his elbow and then his knee.

These setbacks resulted in defeat at the Russian championships, dashing his hopes of competing at Beijing.

Makhov said later that he was bitterly disappointed at missing out and was close to retiring. But his friends and the support of his coach Magomed Guseinov convinced him to start training again.

Makhov's talent and strong character paid off as he grabbed his second world title in 2009 in Denmark. Next year at the world championship in Moscow he repeated his success to regain the status of the world's top wrestler.

Now the three-time world champion comes into the London Olympics as a red-hot favourite for the gold medal in freestyle wrestling, where unlike in the Greco-Roman style, hand holds are allowed below the waist.

No clampdown on Web - MICA

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http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Science+and+Tech/Story/A1Story20120716-359283.html

The Government has no plans to clamp down on the Internet, said Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Yaacob Ibrahim yesterday.

“The Internet is actually part of our engine of growth in Singapore,” he said.

“We want to ensure that the online space will grow and become a vibrant and robust space for Singaporeans to have a healthier national dialogue.”

Dr Yaacob was commenting about a recent case in which blogger Alex Au alleged online that plastic surgeon Woffles Wu had received special treatment in court.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers wrote to Mr Au, saying that his post had scandalised the courts. Last week, Mr Au apologised for contempt of court.

“We called for responsible behaviour. Whatever you do in the online space must reflect what you do in the real world.”

Making reference to a proposed Internet code of conduct, he added that there was a lot of discussion from the online community, and not the Government, on the need for responsible behaviour.

Since November last year, Dr Yaacob has been encouraging the online community to come up with a code of conduct on responsible online behaviour.

Dr Yaacob reiterated that a code has to be developed with a “bottom-up” approach and not a “top-down” one.

“It is open to all. The netizens must take charge of this,” he said.