05/08/2025

TUESDAY | AUG 5, 2025

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Tycoon linked to jailed S’pore ex-minister pleads guilty

Beijing warns of more floods BEIJING: Beijing yesterday warned residents in its mountainous suburbs to brace for another round of heavy rainfall, a week after catastrophic floods killed dozens in the deadliest deluge to hit the Chinese capital since 2012. Up to 200mm of rain could hit parts of Beijing over a six-hour period from midday, weather forecasters warned. The city of 22 million people receives on average 600mm of rainfall each year. The alert comes as authorities rush to reinforce ageing flood defences, fine-tune weather forecasts and update evacuation plans amid reports of bodies being pulled from raging flood waters across the country, including at least three at a flooded wellness camp in Hebei province. Yesterday, Beijing had seven of its 16 districts on the highest level of preparedness for flood prevention – Mentougou, Fangshan, Fengtai, Shijingshan, Huairou, Miyun and Yanqing – most of which lie in mountainous areas to the west and north of the city. The risk of flash floods and landslides is “extremely high”, authorities said. Beijing’s topography has been described by some as a rain “trap”, with its mountains to the west and north capturing moist air and amplifying any ensuing rainfall as a result. – Reuters

Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Salgado. While in India, Marcos is expected to sign pacts in such fields as law, culture and technology, according to Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Evangeline Ong Jimenez-Ducrocq, but all eyes will be on any potential defence agreements. Before departing yesterday, Marcos praised the two countries’ “steadfastness in upholding international maritime law, including the Unclos”, the UN treaty granting an exclusive economic zone within 370km of a country’s shores. The Philippines has previously purchased BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles from India, a weapon which has a top speed of 3,450km per hour. India, which has engaged in border clashes with China, is a member of the Quad, a group that includes United States, Japan and Australia. Beijing has repeatedly alleged that the four-way partnership, first conceived by late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, was created as a way of containing China. – AFP This led Iswaran to ask Ong to issue an invoice through Singapore GP, promoter of the Singapore F1 Grand Prix, to bill him for the trip, which prosecutors say Iswaran knew would make it less likely that he would be investigated. Iswaran was sentenced to 12 months in prison last October, the first time a former Cabinet member had ever been jailed in Singapore, on charges of obstructing justice and receiving more than US$300,000 (RM1.2 million) worth of gifts. In February, Iswaran was put under house arrest for the remainder of his sentence. Ong gave Iswaran tickets to English Premier League soccer matches, the Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix, London musicals and a ride on a private jet among other favours. Iswaran was an adviser to the Singapore Grand Prix’s steering committee, while Ong, 78, owns the rights to the race. The billionaire stepped down as managing director of Singapore-listed Hotel Properties in April. – Reuters

o Sentencing fixed for Aug 15

SINGAPORE: Property tycoon Ong Beng Seng pleaded guilty to one charge of obstructing justice yesterday in a landmark corruption case that led to the jailing of former transport minister S. Iswaran last year. However, both the prosecution and defence agreed to grant Ong judicial mercy given his chronic illness, and argued for him to be fined in lieu of imprisonment. He will be sentenced on Aug 15. A second charge of abetting an offence was also taken into consideration. Judicial mercy gives courts the authority to give a more lenient sentence in exceptional mitigating circumstances, such as a terminal illness or when imprisonment could pose a high risk of endangering a life. The defence submitted that Ong suffers from multiple myeloma, an

Ong leaving the State Court yesterday. – AFPPIC

graft and prides itself on its reputation for clean governance. Ong had informed Iswaran that his associates had been questioned and a private flight manifest with Iswaran’s name on it for a flight from Singapore to Doha had been seized by the corruption watchdog.

incurable cancer that affects his blood plasma cells and renders him immuno-compromised. The case has been the subject of major intrigue in Singapore, a wealthy financial hub that offers ministers salaries of more than S$1 million (RM3.29 million) to deter

Philippine, Indian navies begin joint patrols

MANILA: Indian Navy warships have begun patrolling areas of the disputed South China Sea with their Philippine counterparts for the first time, Manila’s military said yesterday, as President Ferdinand Marcos left for a state visit to New Delhi. The two-day sail includes three Indian vessels and started on Sunday, a day before Marcos left on a trip that will include talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Philippines has heightened defence cooperation with a range of allies over the past year after a series of clashes in the South China Sea. Beijing claims nearly the entirety of the waterway despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis. India’s naval vessels, including the guided missile destroyer INS Delhi , arrived in Manila for a port visit late last week. The patrol “started yesterday afternoon, then it’s ongoing up to this moment ... the activity at the moment is replenishment at sea,” said

A delivery worker rides through a flooded intersection in Tainan. – AFPPIC

Torrential rain lashes southern Taiwan TAIPEI: Four people died and more than 5,900 have been evacuated in southern Taiwan after the island recorded more than a year’s rainfall over the past week which caused widespread landslides and flooding. Three people are missing and 77 have been injured since late July when a depression and strong southwesterly airstreams began causing flooding and landslides in Taiwan’s south, an area vital for the island’s agriculture sector. More than 2.6m of rain were dumped on parts of the mountainous south in the past seven days, according to Central Weather Administration, compared with average annual rainfall of about 2.1m in subtropical Taiwan. Prime Minister Cho Jung-tai, who yesterday visited the southern city of Tainan hit hard by Typhoon Danas and recent rains, said his Cabinet was working to propose a special budget this week to provide relief efforts. “We rarely encountered such a severe storm before. It has been a month since Danas , and it has been raining ever since,” Cho said. The government said more than

2,000 people were still forced to stay away from their homes, mostly in the mountainous villages in the southern Kaohsiung and Pingtung county where rescuers were working to restore roads cut off by landslides or flooding and deliver food and medical supplies. “This can be said to be the largest evacuation in terms of the number of people evacuated in the past decade or so,” Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chi-mai told reporters on Sunday. “Please don’t go up the mountain. It’s really, really dangerous.” – Reuters

An Indian Navy sailor stands with Philippine and Indian flags in Manila Port at the start of patrols. – AFPPIC