Singaporeans Stunned By Riot

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans are still in a state of disbelief that a riot by a group of foreigners at Little India actually happened in this relatively trouble-free island late Sunday night.

Bank employee Eugene Leong, 28, said that it was difficult to digest the images of about 200 foreigners attacking several police patrol cars, ambulance, a bus and setting them on fire.

"Its not something that you would think would ever happen, especially in Singapore, as we are famed for our stringent regulations.

"Watching the incident on the news was shocking and scary and now many of us want to know what action will be taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again," he said when interviewed along Race Course Road where the rioters ran rampant.

Leong said that while action should be taken against those involved, the government should immediately beef up police presence, especially in areas where there were high number of foreigners.

"Another option that could be looked into is to limit the timings for selling alcohol so that drunkards do not loiter around the shops and later cause trouble," said the 28-year-old.

Investment consultant Davian Sim,30, also said that he was shocked when news broke out about the riot.

"We have never heard of such thing happening here and the last major riot were the racial-based ones that occurred in 1969," he said.

He added that the incident was a frightening one that could repeat itself if action was not taken.

"The government should study the matter and come up with ways to deal with this.

"One way could be to adopt a policy from Australia where open drinking in public places is prohibited," he said.

Meanwhile, resident S. Ram Prakash, 14, who witnessed the whole incident from his home on the 17th floor of a nearby flat said that it was beyond frightening.

"Seeing the angry mob attack the bus with sticks and rubbish cans was something that I will not forget.

"The group could not be controlled and continued to cause havoc even after a group of about 10 policemen were deployed to the area," he said.

He added that the most frightening was when rioters set fire to several police petrol cars and overturned the vehicles.

"I believe that they were all drunk because they were dancing and shouting as the fires blazed," he said, adding that the crowd dispersed only when riot police were deployed.

Ram said that the whole fiasco ended at around 12pm and the remains of the burnt petrol cars were cleared up at around 4am on Monday morning.

- The Star

Singapore Got Riot?

Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean (front R) and Minister in Prime Minister's Office S Iswaran (front 2nd R) look at the site of two burnt vehicles following a riot in Singapore's Little India district, December 9, 2013. REUTERS/Rob Dawson

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A crowd set fire to vehicles and clashed with police in the Indian district of Singapore late on Sunday, in a rare outbreak of rioting in the city state.

The incident reportedly started after a private bus hit and killed a foreign worker in the Little India area. Television footage showed a crowd of people smashing the windscreen of a bus, and at least three police cars being flipped over.

Singapore Police Force said the riot started after a fatal traffic accident. "Shortly after, a riot broke out involving a crowd of about 400 subjects where the subjects damaged five police vehicles and one ambulance," it said in a statement, adding that around 10 police officers were injured.

Little India is usually packed with people on Sundays, with many construction workers from Bangladesh and India gathering there to spend their day off.

Incidents like this are rare in Singapore, which has tough laws on rioting that carry a sentence of up to seven years in prison and possible caning.

"This is a serious incident which has resulted in injuries and damage to public property," said Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs. "Police will spare no efforts to apprehend the subjects involved in the riot."

The breakout is likely to fuel concerns about discontent among low-paid foreign workers. Last year Singapore saw its biggest outbreak of labour unrest in years when around 170 bus drivers from mainland China went on strike illegally.

Footage on Channel NewsAsia showed at least two vehicles on fire and debris strewn across Racecourse Road, one of the main thoroughfares in Little India. Many other private cars were reported to have been damaged as well.

Police reported at 1 a.m. on Monday morning (1700 GMT on Sunday) that the incident was under control.

(This story has been refiled to change 'showing' to 'showed' in second paragraph)

(Reporting by Rachel Armstrong; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Connection To GOD?

In 1983, a team of deeply pious scientists conducted a radical experiment in an undisclosed facility. The scientists had theorized that a human without access to any senses or ways to perceive stimuli would be able to perceive the presence of God. They believed that the five senses clouded our awareness of eternity, and without them, a human could actually establish contact with God by thought. An elderly man who claimed to have “nothing to left to live for” was the only test subject to volunteer. To purge him of all his senses, the scientists performed a complex operation in which every sensory nerve connection to the brain was surgically severed. Although the test subject retained full muscular function, he could not see, hear, taste, smell, or feel. With no possible way to communicate with or even sense the outside world, he was alone with his thoughts.

Scientists monitored him as he spoke aloud about his state of mind in jumbled, slurred sentences that he couldn’t even hear. After four days, the man claimed to be hearing hushed, unintelligible voices in his head. Assuming it was an onset of psychosis, the scientists paid little attention to the man’s concerns.

Two days later, the man cried that he could hear his dead wife speaking with him, and even more, he could communicate back. The scientists were intrigued, but were not convinced until the subject started naming dead relatives of the scientists. He repeated personal information to the scientists that only their dead spouses and parents would have known. At this point, a sizable portion of scientists left the study.

After a week of conversing with the deceased through his thoughts, the subject became distressed, saying the voices were overwhelming. In every waking moment, his consciousness was bombarded by hundreds of voices that refused to leave him alone. He frequently threw himself against the wall, trying to elicit a pain response. He begged the scientists for sedatives, so he could escape the voices by sleeping. This tactic worked for three days, until he started having severe night terrors. The subject repeatedly said that he could see and hear the deceased in his dreams.

Only a day later, the subject began to scream and claw at his nonfunctional eyes, hoping to sense something in the physical world. The hysterical subject now said the voices of the dead were deafening and hostile, speaking of hell and the end of the world. At one point, he yelled “No heaven, no forgiveness” for five hours straight. He continually begged to be killed, but the scientists were convinced that he was close to establishing contact with God.

After another day, the subject could no longer form coherent sentences. Seemingly mad, he started to bite off chunks of flesh from his arm. The scientists rushed into the test chamber and restrained him to a table so he could not kill himself. After a few hours of being tied down, the subject halted his struggling and screaming. He stared blankly at the ceiling as teardrops silently streaked across his face. For two weeks, the subject had to be manually rehydrated due to the constant crying. Eventually, he turned his head and, despite his blindness, made focused eye contact with a scientist for the first time in the study. He whispered “I have spoken with God, and he has abandoned us” and his vital signs stopped. There was no apparent cause of death.

Crocodile In Penang

The Star/Asia News Network

Sunday, Dec 01, 2013

GEORGE TOWN - The sighting of a crocodile in Penang waters has sparked frenzy on social media.

A Facebook user took a picture of the crocodile near the Penang Port and shared it with others. It is believed that a fisherman near Pulau Rimau first sighted the crocodile at about noon on Thursday.

District officer of the Civil Defence Department Lt Zainudin Abdullah said the crocodile was trapped in the fisherman's net but managed to escape.

"No report was lodged. We will, however, work closely with the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and fishermen to locate the crocodile," he said.

Wildlife expert Mohamed Hifni Baharuddin, a senior lecturer of the School of Biological Sciences at Universiti Sains Malaysia, said it was rare for crocodiles to be out in the open.

Asked if crocodiles posed a threat to the public, he said that it was unlikely unless it was their breeding season.

"The public have nothing to worry about as there have been no record of attacks. They only attack people during the breeding season when they think that you are a threat to them or when you encroach (into) their nesting grounds," he said.

He said the peninsula was not like Sabah and Sarawak where the crocodile population is relatively higher, adding that the higher the population, the more likely it was for attacks to take place.

Crocodiles are omnivorous and can be present in fresh water and salt water.

Their diet include fish, plant material and shellfish.

Monster Fish With Horns

PENANG: Rosli Mohd Saad is excited of his recent catch - a strange-looking sea creature with horns which he caught while fishing in the coastal waters off Sungai Pinang here recently.

The avid angler said he casted  the fishing net to catch fish fries as baits in the sea near Penang Bridge and was surprised the find the live fish.

 

He said it looked like a cross between a toad, a puffer fish and a sea horse.

 

About the size of ping-pong ball, it is greenish-yellow in colour and has a grandular and scaly body like a toad, and a snout-like mouth resembling a sea horse.

 

The most oustanding feature of the creature was the spikes or horns, like in a puffer fish, on its head and tail. They are sharp and about one-centimeter long. 

 

Rosli said it was a fish since it has gills on both sides of the face.

 

"This is the first time I have ever caught a strange creature from the sea.

 

"I want to bring it to the Fisheries Department to identify the creature. Until then, I want to keep and feed it in a special aquarium," he said.

Rosli Mohd Saad shows this unique fish with horns which he caught in the coastal waters off Sungai Pinang in Penang. NSTP/Muhammad Mikail Ong IKAN-3

- NST