Singaporeans staying in Thailand, what's next?

Amid the protests happening in Thailand now, Singaporeans who are staying and working there are staying calm and keeping in touch with family and friends since the protest happened from the start.

40—year—old Gilbert Lim, who has been working in Bangkok for 16 years, told MediaCorp in a telephone interview that the situation was still very fluid.

"Even with this state of emergency declared, it hasn’t dawned on me that it’s something really urgent or very, very unsafe," he said.

"We still haven’t seen what the government is going to do further. So far, they’ve really taken a subdued stance on the protesters. We’ll see whether it’s going to get worse or not."

Mr Lim said Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Ministry alerted him of the state of emergency via e—mail at about 9pm local time.

The Singapore embassy in Bangkok is also closely monitoring the situation.

The Singapore embassy in Bangkok is also closely monitoring the situation.

However, Singaporeans in Bangkok have been calling home to assure family members of their safety.

However, Singaporeans in Bangkok have been calling home to assure family members of their safety.

She is also taking precautions.

"I guess we will be taking care of where we are going, and not to venture to other places other than going to work and coming back. Other than that, everything looks normal," she told MediaCorp in a telephone interview.

The emergency rule bans public gatherings of more than five people and gives broad powers to the police and military.

It was enforced after protesters stormed Parliament in a dramatic escalation of their bid to topple the government.

CNA

Corruption Suspects Hiding In Singapore?

Are suspects of Indonesian corruption hiding in Singapore? Just last week Singapore cracked down a young tax official who laundering millions of dollars. And now Indonesia police want to have a close watched with Singapore in bringing out corruptions.

Read the following report of the Indonesia corrupter being arrested and sent back to Jakarta!

JAKARTA (AFP) - – Indonesian police want to work more closely with Singapore to track down corruption suspects who have taken sanctuary in the city state, national police chief detective Ito Sumardi said Monday.

Singapore came under the spotlight last week when a young tax official suspected of laundering millions of dollars was apprehended there and returned to Jakarta.

The ease with which Indonesian police were allowed to enter Singapore, track down the official, Gayus Tambunan, 30, and convince him to return to Indonesia has focused attention on other alleged criminals hiding there.

Sumardi said 10 to 20 Indonesian suspects were living in Singapore, which has a reputation as the cleanest country in Asia.

"We need to bring them back to Indonesia... They're economic criminals. They consider Singapore a safe place to stay," he told AFP.

"First, our target is to bring back six suspects linked to the Bank Century case. They're all hiding in Singapore," he said, referring to a scandal over a 700-million-dollar bank bailout in 2008.

"After that, we'll try to find those involved in other cases. Based on police checks, we believe the number of suspects in Singapore is in the teens, including those involved in the Bank Century case."

In a recent update to lawmakers, Deputy Attorney General Darmono said most of 18 alleged graft suspects currently subject to extradition requests were hiding in Singapore.

Another 10 had fled abroad, mostly to Singapore, but were not subject to extradition requests, he added.

Sumardi said the police and attorney general's office might be tracking different suspects and he could not provide a definitive figure for the number of fugitives believed to be in Singapore.

Indonesian officials have complained for years about what they say is the freedom enjoyed by such fugitives in Singapore, where they have allegedly pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into banks and property.

"We'll be working with the Singapore authorities such as the police and immigration department, and we'll use specific approaches to convince the suspects to return to Indonesia," Sumardi said.

Indonesia and Singapore signed a long-delayed extradition treaty in 2007 but it has not come into force due to Singapore's insistence on linking it to defence ties, Indonesian officials said.

Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said last week that unlike other Indonesian suspects, Gayus did not have powerful connections and therefore could not hold out for long.

"Businessmen have a wide reach to anywhere, they have no boundaries. Civil servants have limited reach," he said.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told AFP last month he planned to raise Indonesia's concerns in "informal talks" with Singaporean leaders later this year.

7.7 quake rocks Sumatra, deadly tsunami reminded!

A powerful earthquake rock Sumatra early this morning, scared of another deadly tsunami woken up people to move to higher ground. What happen to our mother earth?

Read the following report.
JAKARTA, Indonesia – A 7.7 earthquake shook Indonesia's northwest island of Sumatra early Wednesday, prompting a brief tsunami warning and sending residents rushing for higher ground. There were no immediate reports of widespread damage.

The quake struck at 5:15 a.m. (2215 GMT) and was centered 125 miles (205 kilometers) northwest of Sibolga in Sumatra at a depth of 28.6 miles (46 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. It had earlier said the quake measured 7.8.

The Indonesia Meteorology and Geophysics Agency and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu issued tsunami warnings following the quake, but lifted them two hours later.
"So far no damage or casualties have been reported and the situation is under control," Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf said.

At least five strong aftershocks measuring up to 5.2 were recorded, the meteorology agency said.

The quake, which struck as people in the region were preparing for morning prayers, caused panic in North Sumatra's capital of Medan and other cities in the region. Electricity was cut in Medan and Banda Aceh, provincial capital of Aceh.

People in several cities along the southeastern coast of Sumatra as well as Sinabang on Simeulue island and Gunung Sitoli on nearby Nias island poured into the streets and rushed to higher ground after the quake.

"Rumors about a tsunami panicked villagers living near the beach," said Eddy Effendi, a resident in Nias district of North Sumatra province. "They ran away on motorbikes and cars or by climbing the hills. There was panic and chaos everywhere, but I don't see serious damage or injuries in my village."

Residents in Sibolga said the shaking lasted more than a minute and utility poles in the area were knocked down.

A 2004 tsunami triggered by a magnitude-9.2 earthquake in the same region killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries on the Indian Ocean basin.