9-year-old fires shotgun

Norwegian police say a 9-year-old boy has fired two rounds with a shotgun he brought to his elementary school without causing injuries. They say that they does not know why the fourth grader brought the gun to school or where he got it. The shots were fired on Friday as pupils gathered for classes in the yard outside the 300-student Kanebogen elementary school. The boy fired when teachers tried to take the gun away from him and that the shots went over the school roof. Police say a teacher then took the gun without further incident. The boy is being looked after by school officials and public health experts.

Death for Viet gang members

In Hanoi, a vietnamese gang leader who began life on the streets aged just 11 will die in front of a firing squad after a court sentenced him and three henchmen to death on Tuesday. Huynh Van Hoa, 40, who led a murder and robbery gang, was convicted in southern Ho Chi Minh City after a five-day trial.
In 2005, Hoa used a gun bought in Cambodia to shoot a man dead while robbing him of his motorcycle. The following year, another man was shot and killed when Hoa and other gang members tried to rob him of 128 million dong (S$10,656). Hoa began his life on the streets when his mother committed suicide and his father was jailed. A year later, he was arrested for his first robbery.

Drunk driver gets jail, ban

Just over a year ago, a financial advisor who drank a couple of whisky drinks crashed his car in Bedok North. The accident killed his girlfriend and seriously injured a colleague. On Wednesday, Chiang Kwok Wai, 32, and now unemployed, was given a nine-month jail term and a ban from driving for 10 years. He was found guilty of drink-driving and failing to maintain control of his car, resulting in the deaths. The trio had just had drinks at Boat Quay and he was giving Mr Tay a ride home. The impact so strong the car that Singapore Civil Defence Force officers had to cut it open to free its occupants. A blood test showed Chiang to have 121 mg of ethanol per 100 ml of blood, above the legally prescribed limit of 80mg/100 ml.

Quarantine for some

If you land at Changi Airport and have been in Mexico in the past week: You will have to fill in a form declaring that you were there. After that, you will be asked to stay at home for seven days under a Home Quarantine Order which is backed by law. Those who are visiting Singapore but have also gone to the epicentre of the swine flu epidemic will be put up in chalets, hotels or flats.
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said that other affected areas might be placed on the list later on, but a start will be made with Mexico.
As during the Sars crisis, those quarantined will get calls to check if they have developed symptoms. If so, an ambulance will take them to the Communicable Disease Centre for a thorough assessment. Under the Infectious Diseases Act, those who disobey the order can face a fine of up to $10,000 and up to six months in jail.

Two Vietnamese who came to Singapore for a holiday had their stay extended when they each landed in jail for six months for mobile phone theft. Nguyen Tan Hung, 18, and Ha Dinh Thuan, 23, pleaded guilty on Friday to four charges of theft of cellphones from shoppers at VivoCity shopping mall last Thursday. Three of the victims, aged 15, 19 and 20, were at Daiso store at the HarbourFront Walk mall when Nguyen picked their mobile phones and passed them to his accomplice to avoid being caught. A fourth victim, a 20-year-old unemployed woman, was going down the escalator to Basement 1 when she found her $400 phone missing from her bag.
All the phones totalling $1,650 were recovered.

Planes kill the birds

US pilots battle against gulls, doves, bats. Gulls and other seabirds most frequently strike, followed by doves and pigeons, starlings, then raptors and waterfoul, according to statistics.
The vast majority of wildlife collisions cause only minor harm to aircraft. However, the crash landing of a US Airways Airbus in New York's Hudson River this January, after geese knocked out both engines, served as a chilling reminder of the threat. The pilot was able to land safely but only after flying the packed airliner with no power. The deadliest tragedies occurred in 1960, when a flock of starlings brought down a civilian plane in Massachusetts killing 62 people, and in 1996, when 34 people died in a military aircraft in the Netherlands. Birds have greater trouble hearing today's quieter aircraft, which typically use two, not three or four engines.

Crane crash kills tourist

In taipei, one tourist from mainland China was killed and five others were injured when a construction crane fell on their bus in Taiwan's capital on Friday. One man was killed on the spot and five others were hurt and sent to two hospitals. The six were part of a tour group of 25, from southern Guangdong province, who had to be pulled from their bus after it was smashed by the falling crane. The crane fell on the bus from the 37th storey of a building under construction near Taipei 101, once the world's tallest skyscraper. Police are investigating the accident.

Suicide bombers kill 58

Two female suicide bombers bomb a shrine in Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 58 people. Friday's attacks came as hundreds of worshippers gathered at the shrine Hundreds of thousands of Iranians visit Iraq's many holy sites each year despite the violence. Another suicide bombing in southeastern Baghdad on Thursday killed 28 displaced people who had been receiving food aid from police, and a smaller suicide attack in Diyala killed three people.

Loanshark jailed

An illigal moneylender was jailed for 14 months on Monday. Yap Tia Suah, 45, a driver, admitted to three counts of extending loans of between $2,000 and $4,000 to three debtors last year.
He charged them an interest rate of 15 to 20 per cent each. Three other similar charges were taken into consideration.
Police seized, among other things, nearly $65,000, mobile phones and notebooks from a flat in Sims Avenue.
The money was forfeited.
Yap could have been fined between $20,000 and $200,000 or jailed for up to two years or to both on each of the three charges.

Schoolgirl 'left in sun to die'

An 11 year old Indian schoolgirl died after a teacher made her stand in the baking sun as punishment for not doing her homework. Shanno Khan started bleeding from the nose and fainted after hours in the searing New Delhi heat on Wednesday, and slipped into a coma after being taken to hospital. She died on Friday. Reports said the teacher and the school principal have been suspended, with police waiting for the autopsy on the girl's body before filing a possible criminal case. Corporal punishment is banned in India, but children are often physically abused by school authorities and teachers.

Jailed for stealing cables

A man who stole about $218,000 worth of cable wires from his employer was jailed for 42 months on Friday. Mohamed Sofi Mokri, 36, was a company driver with Nexus Sealand Trading at the time of the thefts from the company's warehouse at Tuas South Street 1. The court heard that he was heavily in debt in May last year when he asked his colleagues, K. Subramaniam Kathiranu KK, 41, and Kannan Sangalam, 44, if they were interested in stealing welding cable wires stored in the warehouse where they worked. He knew that the two were in need of money and could easily steal the items without being detected. He had liaised with a buyer and told him to collect the cable wires from the warehouse.
He has a previous theft conviction. The case against the other two employees and the buyer are pending. He could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined on each of the charges.

Another seriously ill

The food poisoning scare that claimed the life of a 57-year-old woman on Monday morning, has left another very ill in hospital. According to a Ministry of Health statement sent late on Monday, a 59-year-old woman is 'currently critically ill in hospital' after consuming food from Rojak Geylang Serai, a stall that sells Indian rojak. MOH also said that to date, a total of 111 cases have been brought to its attention. Of these, 27 were hospitalised, while 84 received outpatient treatment at various Emergency Departments.

7 shot dead in Mexico

Seven people were found shot to death around Mexico on Saturday, some bearing signs of torture and left with threatening messages emblematic of drug violence. Four of the victims were found in a car in the western city of Apatzingan. Another slain man was found in the western port city of Lazaro Cardenas. A sixth man was found on a highway in the city of Morelia. He had been shot in the head three times and left with a T-shirt pulled over his head and his hands cuffed behind his back. A seventh was found shot to death in the town of Tacambaro.

Woman robbed in lift

A woman was robbed in the lift of Block 282 Choa Chu Kang Avenue 3 on Wednesday afternoon. The woman, who is in her 60s, had entered the lift with the suspect who stood behind her. Once the lift doors closed, he snatched a gold chain from around her neck. As the doors opened, he also managed to grab a pouch that she was holding in her hand, before fleeing down the stairs. She lost her chain worth $550 and some personal items. The thief is described to be slim-built and in his mid-30s. He was wearing a T-shirt, blue jeans and a grey cap.

War on rats in market

Rats were munching on pieces of cardboard laid out between stalls at the Geylang Serai Temporary Market when pest controllers got there on Thursday morning. Rows of them were stuck in the green glue, part of traps laid out the night before. By noon, pest controllers had cleared away 61 rats. Whether the rats have a role in the food poisoning that has affected at least 144 victims since last Friday and caused two deaths is uncertain.

Serial thief nabbed

A serial burglar who is believed to have committed least 20 break-ins at various low-rise apartments across the island has been caught. Stolen items amounting to about $50,000 were recovered from his house. The suspect had also overstayed in Singapore for more than 90 days without valid approval. Between October 2008 and April 2009, there was a series of break-ins committed at low-rise apartments in Hougang, Serangoon and Telok Kurau private residential estates. He is believed to have stolen cash, jewellery, laptops, expensive branded watches and other valuables total amounting to about $150,000 in total.

Babysitters abuse

Setting up a spycam could be the best way for parents to keep watch on their maids and the children under their care. Security experts said that some surveillance systems with cams - some smaller than a thumb - allow parents to log on to a website and monitor what goes on in their homes while they are at work. A video clip, posted on citizen-journalism site Stomp, showing what appears to be a maid brutally kicking, trampling and flinging around a young girl.
Police said they will be contacting the Stomper to obtain more information on the video. The clip was put up on Stomp on Thursday.

Nurse killed 5 patients

A nurse has been charged with injecting 10 patients with bleach at a dialysis clinic last year, killing five of them. The clinic had temporaily shut down last year due to unexplained deaths. The nurse was charged with injecting bleach into patients. She faces 5 counts of murder and assualt.

6.1 earthquake hits Indonesia

A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake shook Indonesia's Sumatran province of Bengkulu on Wednesday. The quake hit at 2.29pm Singapore time and was centred 227 kilometres southwest of Bintuhan in Sumatra island, at a depth of 30 km under the sea. Sumatra is sitting on the places that plates meet, resulting in frequent quakes.

Boy, 9, dies after caning

A Nine-year-old Malaysian pupil was caned in the hands by his teacher at the school on Tuesday, died on Wednesday. The boy had complained about feeling dizzy after the caning session. The school authorities contacted his parents before sending him to the hospital for treatment. The boy had central nervous system problems' and the caning had caused his death. The boy died at home at 3.30am on Wednesday. The principal advised parents to inform school authorities if their children were suffering any ailment. This way the schools will have proper records on the health condition and teachers will be extra cautious when taking any disciplinary action against them.