Seems like public sector, having better work-life-balance, satisfactory pay and gd working hours, are attracting some kinds of vices/frauds and greed?

Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean called the latest graft case involving a senior civil servant "particularly serious".

Assistant director at the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau, Edwin Yeo Seow Hiong, 39, was charged in court on Wednesday with misappropriating S$1.7 million from the anti-graft agency.

In total he faces 21 charges -- eight of misappropriating funds and criminal breach of trust, one of forgery and the rest of using part of his ill-gotten gains to gamble at the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) casino.

As head of field research and technical support at CPIB, Yeo is said to have stolen the $1.7 million between 2008 and August last year. He is known to and believed to have spent slightly more than $240,000 at the casino between 4 May and 8 September last year, around which time the bureau first caught wind of his alleged activity.

Among the charges are instances of Yeo swiping more than $700,000 in cash and $470,000 from a CPIB bank account. He was also said to have gambled at MBS at least 12 times, with transactions recorded from his POSB bank account ranging from $8,250 to $45,550 used for that purpose.

More involved?

DPM Teo, who is also the Minister in charge of the Civil Service, said in a statement, “This case is particularly serious because itinvolved a senior officer in theCPIB, which is entrusted with the mission of maintaining the integrity of the system."

“We will take strong measures to tighten up processes. PMO is examining whether any supervisory lapses may have contributed to this incident. If so, it will take action against the officers responsible," he added.

DPM Teo also acknowledged public concern over the number of high profile criminal cases involving civil servants.

Police staff sergeant Iskandar Bin Rahmat has been charged with the double murders at Kovan while former Central Narcotics Bureau chief Ng Boon Gay was recently acquitted of corruption. Ex-SCDF chief Peter Lim was also jailed six months for corruptly obtaining sexual favour earlier this year.

In 2011, Koh Seah Wee, formerly a deputy director of information technology at the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) was sentenced last month to 22 years' in jail for cheating the government of more than S$12 million.

"As there have been a number of high profile cases recently, the public is understandably concerned about whether this reflects systemic issues in the Public Service.The Service itself is concerned about this," said DPM Teo.
He revealed that the Prime Minister's office had asked both the Commercial Affairs Department and CPIB to conduct a study of public offficers investigated for corruption and other financial crimes over the last five years to see whether there was any change in their number or profile.

The study results will be shared by the Head of the Public Service next week.

PM Lee also initiated an an independent audit into possible lapses within CPIB's processes when this new case came to light and measures are now being implemented.

Associate MD for financial investigations at Kroll Advisory solutions, Stefano Demichellis told Yahoo! Singapore, that from a corporate governance standpoint, the recent case highlighted "red flags" within CPIB that had to be addressed.

Is it worthwhile to ready infrastructure with a view to trade shenzhen and shanghai B-shares?

if so, how best to execute such an infrastructure?

pls share.. thanks

The 2013 version is on.

Support the only Singapore runner doing this race. Check his progress here.

Pledge your donation here.

Come on, Mr. Lim Nghee Huat!

Meet Your New Boss: Buying Large Employers Will Enable China To Dominate 1000s Of U.S. Communities
June 8, 2013
Source: Michael Snyder, Guest Post

Are you ready for a future where China will employ millions of American workers and dominate thousands of small communities all over the United States? Such a future would be unimaginable to many Americans, but the truth is that it is already starting to happen. Chinese acquisition of U.S. businesses set a new all-time record last year, and it is on pace to absolutely shatter that record this year. Meanwhile, China is voraciously gobbling up real estate and is establishing economic beachheads all over America. If China continues to build economic power inside the United States, it will eventually become the dominant economic force in thousands of small communities all over the nation. Just think about what the Smithfield Foods acquisition alone will mean. Smithfield Foods is the largest pork producer and processor in the world. It has facilities in 26 U.S. states and it employs tens of thousands of Americans. It directly owns 460 farms and has contracts with approximately 2,100 others. But now a Chinese company has bought it for $4.7 billion, and that means that the Chinese will now be the most important employer in dozens of rural communities all over America. If you don’t think that this is important, you haven’t been paying much attention to what has been going on in the world. Thanks in part to our massively bloated trade deficit with China, the Chinese have trillions of dollars to spend. They are only just starting to exercise their economic muscles.

And it is important to keep in mind that there is often not much of a difference between “the Chinese government” and “Chinese corporations”. In 2011, 43 percent of all profits in China were produced by companies that the Chinese government had a controlling interest in. Americans are accustomed to thinking of “government” and “business” as being separate things, but in China they are often one and the same. Even when there is a separation in ownership, the reality is that no major Chinese corporation is going to go against the authority and guidance of the Chinese government. The relationship between government and business in China is much different than it is in the United States.

Over the past several years, Chinese companies have become increasingly aggressive. Last year a Chinese company spent $2.6 billion to purchase AMC entertainment – one of the largest movie theater chains in the United States. Now that Chinese company controls more movie ticket sales than anyone else in the world. At the time, that was the largest acquisition of a U.S. firm by a Chinese company, but now the Smithfield Foods deal has greatly surpassed that.

But China is not just relying on acquisitions to expand its economic power. The truth is that “economic beachheads” are being established all over America. For example, Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group, Inc. recently broke ground on a $100 million plant in Thomasville, Alabama. I am sure that many of the residents of Thomasville, Alabama will be glad to have jobs, but it will also become yet another community that will now be heavily dependent on communist China.

And guess where else Chinese companies are putting down roots?

Detroit.

Yes, the poster child for the deindustrialization of America is being invaded by the Chinese. The following comes from a recent CNBC article…

Dozens of companies from China are putting down roots in Detroit, part of the country’s steady push into the American auto industry.

Chinese-owned companies are investing in American businesses and new vehicle technology, selling everything from seat belts to shock absorbers in retail stores, and hiring experienced engineers and designers in an effort to soak up the talent and expertise of domestic automakers and their suppliers.

If you recently purchased an “American-made vehicle”, there is a really good chance that it has Chinese parts in it.

In fact, it is becoming harder and harder to get auto parts that are actually made in America by American companies. A lot of those companies are dying off. One example of this is a battery maker that had received $132 million from the federal government that was recently gobbled up by a huge Chinese corporation…

Industry analysts are hard-pressed to put a number on the Chinese suppliers operating in the United States. “We simply don’t know how many there are,” said David Andrea, an official with the Original Equipment Suppliers Association, a trade organization for auto parts makers.

In one of the more prominent deals, the Wanxiang Group bought most of the assets of the battery maker A123 Systems, which filed for bankruptcy last year despite receiving $132 million of $249 million in federal grants to build two factories in Michigan.

Congressional Republicans criticized the deal, saying A123′s technology could support military applications in China. Still, the buyout was approved this year by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a federal government panel.

China seems particularly interested in acquiring energy resources in the United States. For example, did you know that China is actually mining for coal in the mountains of Tennessee?

Guizhou Gouchuang Energy Holdings Group spent 616 million dollars to acquire Triple H Coal Co. in Jacksboro, Tennessee. At the time, that acquisition really didn’t make much news, but now a group of conservatives in Tennessee is trying to stop the Chinese from blowing up their mountains and taking their coal. The following is from a Wall Street Journal article back in March…

The Tennessee Conservative Union began airing an ad Tuesday that says lawmakers have failed to protect the state’s scenic mountains and are allowing the “Chinese to destroy our mountains and take our coal…the same folks who hold our debt.”

But when it comes to our energy resources, China has been most interested in our oil and natural gas. It is a complete and total mystery why the federal government would allow China to buy up our precious domestic sources of energy, but it is happening. The following is a list of some of the oil and natural gas deals that China has been involved in during the last few years that was compiled by the Wall Street Journal…

Colorado: Cnooc gained a one-third stake in 800,000 acres in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming in a $1.27 billion pact with Chesapeake Energy Corp.

Louisiana: Sinopec has a one-third interest in 265,000 acres in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale after a broader $2.5-billion deal with Devon Energy.

Michigan: Sinopec gained a one-third interest in 350,000 acres in a larger $2.5 billion deal with Devon Energy.

Ohio: Sinopec acquired a one-third stake in Devon Energy’s 235,000 Utica Shale acres in a larger $2.5 billion deal.

Oklahoma: Sinopec has a one-third interest in 215,000 acres in a broader $2.5 billion deal with Devon Energy.

Texas: Cnooc acquired a one-third interest in Chesapeake Energy’s 600,000 acres in the Eagle Ford Shale in a $2.16-billion deal.

Wyoming: Cnooc has a one-third stake in 800,000 acres in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming after a $1.27 billion pact with Chesapeake Energy. Sinopec gained a one-third interest in Devon Energy’s 320,000 acres as part of a larger $2.5 billion deal.

Gulf of Mexico: Cnooc Ltd. separately acquired minority stakes in some of Statoil ASA’s leases as well as six of Nexen Inc.’s deep-water wells.

How could we be so stupid?

Sadly, as our politicians endlessly bicker China just continues to aggressively push ahead.

And pretty soon China may want to build entire cities in the United States just like they have been doing in other countries. According toBloomberg, right now China is actually building a city larger than Manhattan just outside of the capital of Belarus…

China is building an entire city in the forests near the Belarusian capital Minsk to create a manufacturing springboard between the European Union andRussia.

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenkoallotted an area 40 percent larger than Manhattanaround Minsk’s international airport for the $5 billion development, which will include enough housing to accommodate 155,000 people, according to Chinese and Belarusian officials.

And this is actually already happening on a much smaller scale in this country. For example, as I have written about previously, a Chinese company known as “Sino-Michigan Properties LLC” has purchased 200 acres of land near the little town of Milan, Michigan. Their stated goal is to construct a “China City” that has artificial lakes, a Chinese cultural center and hundreds of housing units for Chinese citizens.

In other cases, large chunks of real estate in the middle of major U.S. cities are being gobbled up by Chinese “investors”. Just check out what a Fortune article from a while back says has been happening in Toledo, Ohio…

In March 2011, Chinese investors paid $2.15 million cash for a restaurant complex on the Maumee River in Toledo, Ohio. Soon they put down another $3.8 million on 69 acres of newly decontaminated land in the city’s Marina District, promising to invest $200 million in a new residential-commercial development. That September, another Chinese firm spent $3 million for an aging hotel across a nearby bridge with a view of the minor league ballpark.

Are you starting to get the picture?

China is on the rise and America is in decline. If you doubt this, just read the following list of facts which comes from one of my previous articles entitled “40 Ways That China Is Beating America“…

#1 As I mentioned above, when you total up all imports and exports of goods, China is now the number one trading nation on the entire planet.

#2 During 2012, we sold about 110 billion dollars worth of stuff to the Chinese, but they sold about 425 billion dollars worth of stuff to us. That was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world.

#3 Overall, the U.S. has run a trade deficit with China over the past decade that comes to more than 2.3 trillion dollars.

#4 China now has the largest new car market in the entire world.

#5 China has more foreign currency reserves than anyone else on the planet.

#6 China is the number one gold producer in the world.

#7 China is also the number one gold importer in the world.

#8 The uniforms for the U.S. Olympic team were made in China.

#9 85 percent of all artificial Christmas trees are made in China.

#10 The new World Trade Center tower is going to include glass that has been imported from China.

#11 The new Martin Luther King memorial on the National Mall was made in China.

#12 One of the reasons it is so hard to export stuff to China is because of their tariffs. According to the New York Times, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States costs about $85,000 in China thanks to all the tariffs.

#13 The Chinese economy has grown 7 times faster than the U.S. economy has over the past decade.

#14 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#15 The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

#16 Overall, the United States has lost a total of more than 56,000manufacturing facilities since 2001.

#17 According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing half a million jobs to China every single year.

#18 China now produces more than twice as many automobiles as the United States does.

#19 Since the auto industry bailout, approximately 70 percent of all GM vehicles have been built outside the United States.

#20 After being bailed out by U.S. taxpayers, General Motors is currently involved in 11 joint ventures with companies owned by the Chinese government. The price for entering into many of these “joint ventures” was a transfer of “state of the art technology” from General Motors to the communist Chinese.

#21 Back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high-tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Ten years later, the United States had less than 15 percent and China’s share had soared to 20 percent.

#22 The United States has lost more than a quarter of all of its high-tech manufacturing jobs over the past ten years.

#23 China’s number one export to the U.S. is computer equipment, but the number one U.S. export to China is “scrap and trash”.

#24 The U.S. trade deficit with China is now more than 30 times larger than it was back in 1990.

#25 China now consumes more energy than the United States does.

#26 China is now the leading manufacturer of goods in the entire world.

#27 China uses more cement than the rest of the world combined.

#28 China is now the number one producer of wind and solar power on the entire globe.

#29 There are more pigs in China than in the next 43 pork producing nations combined.

#30 Today, China produces nearly twice as much beer as the United States does.

#31 Right now, China is producing more than three times as much coal as the United States does.

#33 China now produces 11 times as much steel as the United States does.

#34 China produces more than 90 percent of the global supply of rare earth elements.

#35 China is now the number one supplier of components that are critical to the operation of U.S. defense systems.

#36 A recent investigation by the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services found more than one million counterfeit Chinese parts in the Department of Defense supply chain.

#37 15 years ago, China was 14th in the world in published scientific research articles. But now, China is expected to pass the United States and become number one very shortly.

#38 China now awards more doctoral degrees in engineering each year than the United States does.

#39 The average household debt load in the United States is 136% of average household income. In China, the average household debt loadis 17% of average household income.

#40 The Chinese have begun to buy up huge amounts of U.S. real estate. In fact, Chinese citizens purchased one out of every ten homes that were sold in the state of California in 2011.

And what we have seen so far may just be the tip of the iceberg as far as Chinese “investment” in U.S. real estate is concerned. The following is a brief excerpt from a Bloomberg article that was posted just last week…

China is studying the possibility of investing a portion of its $3.4 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves in U.S. real estate, said two people with direct knowledge of the situation.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange began the study after seeing signs of a recovery in the U.S. property market, said the people, who asked not to be identified as they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter. China may acquire properties, invest in real estate funds or buy stakes in property companies, they said. The safety of the investments will be the top priority, said the people, who didn’t elaborate on a timetable or other details.

So what can we do about all of this?

Unfortunately, not a whole lot. Both major political parties seem to be fully convinced that merging our economy with the economy of communist China is a great idea. I would not expect major changes in our policies regarding China any time soon.

For now, I will just leave you with one piece of advice…

Learn to speak Chinese. You might need it someday.

http://blacklistednews.com/?news_id=26527&print=1

http://www.afr.com/p/national/mr_liu_and...h6rnrTb6OP

Mr Liu and his fake Australian passport
PUBLISHED: 0 HOUR 55 MINUTE AGO | UPDATE: 0 HOUR 30 MINUTE AGO
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Liu Tienan, when arrested, was said to have a false Australian passport, a ticket to Sydney and $2.2 million. Photo: Reuters
ANGUS GRIGG AND LISA MURRAY
Shanghai |The Australian government is investigating claims a senior member of China’s ruling elite, who has been detained on corruption charges, held a fake Australian passport.

The case involves Liu Tienan, who was removed as deputy chairman of the all powerful National Development and Reform Commission in mid-May.

At the time of his arrest Mr Liu was reportedly carrying an Australian passport in a fake name, an airline ticket to Sydney and had $2.2 million in Australian currency.

In recent weeks China’s state media have divulged other salacious details including a string of mistresses and an extensive pornography collection.

Mr Liu, who was previously chairman of the National Energy Administration, was also reportedly found with $19 million across 25 bank accounts, more than 9 kilograms of gold bullion and 25 rare diamonds.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday it was aware of claims that Mr Liu was found in possession of an Australian passport in the name Liu Yaping.

However, it said there was no record of any passport being issued in either name and was “making further­ ­inquiries”.

“The prevention and detection of fraud against Australian passports is a key objective for the department,” a spokesperson said in a written response to questions.

Mr Liu is reportedly being investigated by China’s Communist Party for irregular approvals of almost 300 projects worth 34 billion yuan ($6.1 billion).

The case highlights how senior Chinese officials see Australia as a safe haven and often look to obtain a “blue passport” for themselves and their family. The official Xinhua newsagency said Mr Liu was a “moth” with nowhere to hide.

TOP ENERGY OFFICIAL
But before his downfall Mr Liu sat near the very top of China’s complicated bureaucratic structure. He was the second-ranked official at the NDRC, the country’s top economic planning agency responsible for everything from foreign investment to power tariffs and infrastructure development, and also a key contact point for foreign governments dealing with China.

He was also the country’s top energy official.

His contact with Australia was extensive. Sources have told The Australian Financial Review he helped negotiate the $25 billion gas supply deal between China and Woodside, which helped bring the North West Shelf into production and at the time was Australia’s largest single export deal.

Mr Liu was also an important player in the iron ore trade between Australia and China.

He is among the highest-profile victims of President Xi Jinping’s recent pledge to “swat” both flies and tigers in a major crackdown on official corruption as part of a new more competitive economic policy.

As is often the way, Mr Liu was brought down by a jilted lover.

Accusations of corruption were first made public by a journalist on his Sina Weibo account – China’s version of Twitter – in December.

Mr Liu’s Japanese-based mistress told the journalist how her former lover had colluded with a businessman and held a fake degree.

DETAINED FOR CORRUPTION
The posting, which quickly went viral, was initially denied by the NDRC and Xinhua in a media report.

But in March Mr Liu was stood down as chairman of the National Energy Administration and in May removed from his position at the NDRC.

He is now being held by the Central Disciplinary Inspection Committee, which is headed by Politburo standing committee member Wang Qishan.

He was detained for “serious disciplinary violations”, a common euphemism for corruption.

Hong Kong’s Chinese language media first reported on Mr Liu’s wealth and fake passports. The details were then picked up by state media on the mainland.

It was reported that Mr Liu carried his Australian passport with him at all times. He also reportedly carried a Canadian passport issued in another name.

DFAT said it would “vigorously prosecute” any cases of passport fraud, adding that penalties included up to 10 years in prison and $110,000 in fines.

“We have a range of controls in place to ensure that genuine Australian passports are issued only to Australian citizens, and we work closely with border agencies in Australia and overseas to prevent and detect the misuse of Australian passports.”

The case of Mr Liu has captivated China’s army of social media bloggers as every new detail emerges.

According to media reports, Mr Liu was detained at 11pm on May 11 with his wife, after hosting an anti-corruption conference that day.

Other assets accumulated by his family include five properties, a share portfolio worth 133 million yuan ($24 million), nine expensive watches and a valuable art collection.

He was reported to have 12 different passports, but only carried his Australian and Canadian passports with him at all times as well as airline tickets to Sydney and Toronto, via Hong Kong.

HOUSE IN SYDNEY’S POINT PIPER
In October 2010, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on a young Chinese couple wanting to bulldoze a $32 million harbourside mansion in Point Piper.

It later turned out that the property was owned by the son and daughter-in-law of Beijing power-broker Zeng Qinghong.

He was the chief political organiser behind former president Jiang Zemin and more recently was credited with installing Xi Jinping as the country’s top leader.

Only when the SMH report was picked up by social media in China was the connection made and questions raised about how the couple were in a position to buy such a house in Sydney’s most expensive suburb.

Former intelligence officer Warren Reed said it was difficult for agencies to keep tabs on high profile Chinese nationals as their names could be easily be tweaked when they were changed from Mandarin characters into the roman alphabet.

“It’s a nightmare for the [intelligence] agencies,” said Mr Reed, who previously worked at the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.

“It’s really a hairy period we are entering and the problem is only going to get worse.”

READ NEXT:
China’s ex-rail chief guilty in graft case
The Australian Financial Review

China ex-rail minister gets suspended death for bribery
563 words
8 Jul 2013
Agence France Presse
AFPR
English
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013 All reproduction and presentation rights reserved.
A Chinese court Monday gave former railways minister Liu Zhijun a suspended death sentence, the highest-ranking official to be punished for corruption since new leaders took office vowing to clean up the ruling Communist Party.

Once hailed as the "father" of China's flagship high-speed rail network, Liu, 60, was convicted of bribery and abuse of power by a court in Beijing, the official Xinhua news agency said.

State television showed the diminutive, bespectacled defendant standing impassively in the dock in a dark jacket, flanked by two police.

Liu was sacked as railways minister in 2011 after eight years in the post, and the scandal surrounding him is reported to have involved as much as 800 million yuan ($130 million).

He was charged and convicted of accepting 64.6 million yuan in bribes to help 11 people secure contracts and promotions, Xinhua said, adding that he "took advantage of his positions" and "inflicted colossal losses in the public assets, violating rights and interests of the state and the people".

"Liu Zhijun was sentenced to the death penalty with two years' suspension," a court official told AFP by phone.

Under Chinese law the death penalty can be imposed for taking bribes exceeding 100,000 yuan. Suspended death sentences are normally commuted to life imprisonment.

The court also ordered all of Liu's personal property to be confiscated and issued a separate sentence of 10 years in prison for abuse of power, Xinhua said.

China's rail system -- which has cost hundreds of billions of dollars -- has been one of the ruling party's flagship development projects in recent years, and the country now boasts the world's longest high-speed network.

But a high-speed crash in the eastern city of Wenzhou killed some 40 people in 2011, sparking public criticism that authorities compromised safety in their rush to expand the network.

The railways ministry was disbanded in March, with its administrative functions handed to the transport ministry and its commercial role to a new China Railway Corporation.

The country's new leaders under President Xi Jinping have vowed to fight corruption, identifying it as a threat to Communist Party rule.

In January, Xi was quoted by state media telling the party's corruption watchdog there would be "no leniency" against wrongdoing.

In May Xinhua reported that China was investigating a former top state planner Liu Tienan for alleged "serious disciplinary violations" -- phrasing which typically refers to corruption.

Bo Xilai, former party chief of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing, is also expected to face trial for allegedly taking bribes and helping cover up his wife's murder of a British businessman.

Numerous low-level officials have come under investigation after social media users exposed alleged corruption, with some cases involving expensive watches or multiple mistresses.

A longtime railways official, Liu studied transport management and held senior posts in several provinces before joining the national railways ministry in 1994 and rising to minister in 2003.

Users of China's popular microblog service Sina Weibo were sceptical about his punishment, with some condemning it as too lenient.

"Such good news for corrupted officials. This is encouraging them, because the worst result will just be a suspended death penalty," said one.

Another lamented: "Oh dear, now he's going to keep wasting taxpayers' money."

cdh/slb


Agence France-Presse

Document AFPR000020130708e978001us

any medical professional here, how come when she started coughing, he knows her vital signs were plummeting? how does coughing link to drop in oxygen level?

Sunday, Jul 07, 2013
The Straits Times
By Salma Khalik

SINGAPORE - A mother became the second patient in four years to die following liposuction - after doctors lost their battle to save her life.

The 44-year-old, who has two teenage sons, was rushed to hospital when she collapsed in a clinic after the cosmetic procedure to remove fat from her abdomen and use it to make her thighs smoother.

Doctors then fought for two hours to save her but she died without regaining consciousness.

Last Friday's tragedy comes less than four years after the death of property firm owner Franklin Heng, who suffocated after being given too much anaesthetic during liposuction.

The woman was undergoing the procedure at TCS at Central Clinic in Eu Tong Sen Street when the level of oxygen in her blood suddenly plummeted.

She sat up and coughed, before collapsing, said general surgeon Edward Foo. Doctors then tried to resuscitate her until an ambulance crew arrived five minutes later and took over. She was taken to Singapore General Hospital (SGH), with her husband also rushing to see her. But she never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead two hours later.

It was not the first time that Dr Foo had performed liposuction on the woman - who had also undergone the procedure at another clinic in the past but had been unhappy with the results.

Dr Foo said she had appeared to be a low-risk patient. He added that he had not given her a general anaesthetic but merely sedated her - just as he would when performing a colon scan. "Her vital signs were rock solid throughout the procedure," he said. And in a reference to the controversial sedative given to Mr Heng, he added: "I did not use propofol."

A spokesman for SGH said it could not comment as a coroner's inquiry is pending. The Ministry of Health said it was aware of the case and looking into the facts.

Officials turned up at the clinic last Saturday, taking all documents related to the death.


Woman first saw doc over 'dents'

The mother who has died following liposuction first saw Dr Edward Foo in 2011 after "dents" started appearing on her thighs.

She had undergone the procedure at a different clinic but was not pleased with the results.

The general surgeon took fat from another part of her body, using it to fill up the dents and give her thighs a smooth finish.

The results were good and the woman - who has two teenage sons - became confident enough to start wearing skirts again. But last month, she returned for further treatment as the dents were again appearing on her thighs.

Dr Foo, a general surgeon who carries out about 200 liposuction procedures a year at TCS at Central Clinic in Eu Tong Sen Street, said he did not think the patient was at a high risk of complications.

Ministry of Health rules stipulate that liposuction procedures involving a litre or more of fat must be carried out in a surgery centre or operating theatre. In this case, it was done in one of the clinic's two operating theatres - even though less than half of that amount was removed.

The fat taken out was put into the thighs to plump out the hollow parts.

But while the patient was lying down after the operation, she coughed. Dr Foo said he immediately noticed her vital signs plummeting.

He called for help and several doctors and nurses arrived.

Meanwhile, she sat up, said she had a lot of phlegm in her throat, and coughed - before fainting.

The clinic immediately called for an ambulance after her collapse, at 2.53pm on Friday. Five minutes later, Singapore Civil Defence Force paramedics arrived to find clinic personnel trying to resuscitate the woman.

They were administering oxygen and had also given her some medicine within minutes of her collapse.

The paramedics took over and continued with cardiopulmonary resuscitation all the way to the hospital, where doctors spent two hours trying in vain to revive her.


Dr Foo went with the patient in the ambulance while the clinic's medical director Chow Yuen Ho drove there. Her husband was called, and arrived before she died.

"We're very careful people," said Dr Chow. "We follow all the guidelines. It's unfortunate that despite all the precautions, something like this can happen."

Dr Foo, who spends his mornings in general surgery at Mount Alvernia Hospital and his afternoons at the clinic, said he has been carrying out liposuction for about eight years.

He is also accredited by the Ministry of Health to train other doctors in the treatment.

"I feel like c**p," he told The Straits Times last night. "I've done more than 1,000 cases and I've not had a single adverse event."

The issue of cosmetic treatments by non-plastic surgeons has been a thorny one here for some years.

Plastic surgeons who spoke to The Straits Times pointed to dangers that arise if non-specialists carry out liposuction - which they say carries a risk in inexperienced hands. Guidelines permit general practitioners to perform it.

Dr Seah Chee Seng, who works at Gleneagles Medical Centre, said: "When you allow a whole bunch of people with a variety of training to do cosmetic surgery, you'll end up with problems."

Dr Wong Chia Ho, who has a clinic at Mount Elizabeth Novena, added: "It makes a lot of difference. A plastic surgeon is trained to do liposuction. A general surgeon is not."

salma@sph.com.sg

Seriously how much can we trust Chinese when they can't even trust themselves and got to resort to all sorts of tactics...

Breast milk with your tea? In China, the butler can help

Angus Grigg AFR corresondent
537 words
4 Jul 2013
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2013. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.
Shanghai The rise of China has thrown up some oddities over the past decade and this latest status symbol for the country's newly rich is no exception.

It's not just handmade shoes or a British-trained butler that's come into vogue, but the services of a personal wet nurse. And it's not only for the children.

According to The Southern Metro­polis Daily, wealthy adults in the ­manu­facturing hub of Shenzhen are spending up to 20,000 yuan ($3600) a month on a wet nurse.

"Clients can choose to consume breast milk directly through breastfeeding . . . but they can always drink it from a breast pump if they feel ­uncomfortable," Lin Jun, from the Xinxinyu Household Service Company, told the paper.

In an indication that the TV series Little Britain has yet to reach China, Mr Lin said breast milk was popular among wealthy adults with high­pressure jobs and poor health.

"Breast milk is the best tonic, ­especially for those people who have undergone major surgery," he said.

While the medical literature does not appear to support the claim, Mr Lin looks to have a thriving business.

He told the Southern Metropolis he was now scouring the country looking for young, healthy mothers who were prepared to do the job.Concerns about exploiting young women

Most of Mr Lin's current crop of wet nurses have been hired from poor rural areas in China, raising concerns about exploitation and debate about whether the practice is even legal.

The employment contract under which the women are retained describes them as either a nanny, cook or housekeeper.

But among China's multitude of other problems – corruption, a toxic environment and a slowing economy – this looks to be a low priority for the police.

"Consuming human breast milk is quite popular among my social circle . . .  spending 10,000 to 20,000 yuan hiring a wet nurse is not uncommon at all," the Southern Metropolis quoted an anonymous source as saying.

"Only a few people would suck breast milk directly from a wet nurse's nipples."

Demand for wet nurses for infants is also increasing, due to a series of tainted milk scandals across China in recent years.

Butlers also in demandThe other high-end service growing in demand by wealthy ­Chinese is a ­British butler.

It's called the "Downton Abbey effect", after the hit television show set in a British country house.

This has seen demand for British butlers in China outstripping supply, and a host of butler schools opening to train locals in the finer points of ­service.

The latest to open was the British Butler Institute, which has outposts in Lagos, Delhi and Brussels.

One of its trainers, Nicholas Bonell, said a butler could show China's wealthy the finer points of etiquette, such as where to place a bouillon spoon or how to respond correctly to a cocktail party invitation.

"New money wants to emulate old money and it does so by acquiring the trappings of old money – works of art for instance, but also a butler," he told That's Shanghai magazine.


Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited

Document AFNR000020130703e9740002u

http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/news...a-3-people
Thu, 2013-06-27 20:01
by MARIA CHENG - AP Medical Writer - Associated Press

Britain may allow a controversial technique to create babies using DNA from three people, a move that would help couples avoid passing on rare genetic diseases, the country's top medical officer says.

The new techniques help women with faulty mitochondria, the energy source in a cell, from passing on to their babies defects that can result in such diseases as muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, heart problems and mental retardation. About one in 200 children is born every year in Britain with a mitochondrial disorder.

For a woman with faulty mitochondria, scientists take only the healthy genetic material from her egg or embryo. They then transfer that into a donor egg or embryo that still has its healthy mitochondria but has had the rest of its key DNA removed. The fertilized embryo is then transferred into the womb of the mother.

Some groups oppose artificial reproduction techniques and believe the destruction of eggs or embryos to be immoral. British tabloids jumped on the procedure when it was first announced in 2008 and labeled it the creation of a three-parent baby — the mother, the donor and the father — a charge scientists claim is inaccurate because the amount of DNA from the donor egg is insignificant.

"Scientists have developed ground-breaking new procedures which could stop these diseases being passed on," Britain's chief medical officer, Dr. Sally Davies, said in a statement on Friday. "It's only right that we look to introduce this life-saving treatment as soon as we can."

Similar research is going on in the U.S., where the embryos are not being used to produce children.

Earlier this year, the U.K.'s fertility regulator said it found most people supported the new in vitro fertilization methods after a public consultation that included hearings and written submissions. Critics have previously slammed the methods as unethical and say there are other ways for people with genetic problems to have healthy children, like egg donation or tests to screen out potentially problematic embryos.

In a response to the public consultation, the charity Christian Medical Fellowship said the techniques were unethical. "We do not consider that the hunt for 'therapies' that might prevent a small number of disabled children (with mitochondrial disease) being born justifies the destruction of hundreds if not thousands of embryonic human lives," the group said. It also said there were lingering concerns about the safety of the techniques.

British law forbids altering a human egg or an embryo before transferring it into a woman, so such treatments are currently only allowed for research. The government says it plans to publish draft guidelines later this year before introducing a final version to be debated in the U.K. Parliament next year. Politicians would need to approve the use of the new techniques before patients could be treated.

If British lawmakers agree, the U.K. would become the first country in the world where the technique could be used to create babies. Experts say the procedures would likely only be used in about a dozen women every year.

"Many of these (mitochondrial) conditions are so severe that they are lethal in infancy, creating a lasting impact upon the child's family," said Alistair Kent, director of the charity, Genetic Alliance U.K., in a statement. "An added option for families at risk of having a child with such a condition is welcome."

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