The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will introduce a new work permit condition from Jan 1, 2019, to protect both employers and FDWs from money-related disputes, the MOM said on Sunday.

Employers found guilty of keeping money belonging to their maids can face a maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine and 12 months’ jail.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event held by the Centre for Domestic Employees (CDE), Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Manpower Low Yen Ling said the MOM received an average of 600 complaints a year regarding FDW salary issues in the past three years.

Said Ms Low: “We understand that some FDWs, for various reasons, wish for their employers to safekeep their monies and their salary. However, the MOM strongly discourages this practice.

“We hope that employers can help their FDWs to open a bank account to allow the FDWs to manage their own monies from their salary.”

She said this was important to minimise and prevent any unnecessary salary dispute.

In a release, the MOM said the practice of employers safekeeping the money of maids poses inconveniences and risks to both parties, as FDWs who have no direct access to their money will have to approach their employers whenever they need the money. Employers will also have to keep track of the correct amount of money to be returned to their workers.

The law requires employers to pay their FDWs’ salaries in full and on time.

The new work permit condition follows an announcement last week that foreigners living in Singapore, including foreign workers and maids, will be limited in the amount of money they can borrow from licensed moneylenders.

The Ministry of Law and MOM said in a joint statement last week that these foreigners will be subject to new aggregate loan caps when they take loans from the moneylenders, and may apply to be in a self-exclusion framework.

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On Sunday, at the CDE’s event at Heartbeat @ Bedok, CDE executive director Shamsul Kamar said that since 2016, it has helped FDWs to recover over $219,000 of unpaid salaries including those of workers who had safekeeping arrangements with their employers.

“Salary disputes caused much inconvenience to our FDWs, as their family expenses back home are all affected if not paid,” said Mr Shamsul.

Since 2016, the centre has been advocating for electronic salary payments for FDWs to minimise salary-related disputes.

Mr Shamsul said no worker should have their salary kept by their employers and every worker should manage her own finances and pursue a work-life balance.

“We noted the FDWs also wanted a safe place to keep their money, and this safe place is none other than the banks.”

In December 2017, the CDE, together with over 100 employment agencies, embarked on a pilot project with POSB bank to help FDWs open POSB Payroll Accounts at the centre’s satellite and employment agencies’ offices.

Since then, more than 5,400 such accounts have been opened.

At Sunday’s event, Mr Shamsul said that from Monday, employers will be able to help their FDW apply for a POSB Payroll account and CDE membership as part of the work pass issuance process, and it can be done online.

This is applicable for newly arrived FDWs or those who are transferring to new employers and do not have an existing POSB account.

“This makes it convenient for both the employers and FDWs,” said Mr Shamsul, adding that the ATM card will be mailed to the FDWs at their employers’ residential address within seven working days, without them having to visit POSB branches or CDE offices.

The cooperation aims to improve treatment by developing local doctors’ skills in the use of new endoscopy equipment to respond to the increasing number of gastrointestinal problems being identified across the country.

A workshop was held at Mahosot Hospital in Vientiane on Friday and attended by health experts from Laos and Thailand and Laos CBF director, Dr Chinda Vongsaly.  The meeting was supported by CBF Pharmacy and Pentax Medical Company.

With outdated equipment not responding to the demands of patients and an increase in the number of gastrointestinal problems, doctors are looking to treat the conditions by using Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatoscopy (ERCP).

The new medical equipment is a flexible tube with an attached camera that allows a doctor to see inside the body. A doctor can also use forceps (tongs) and scissors on the endoscope to then operate or remove tissue for biopsies.

Speaking at the Lao-Thai ERCP workshop, Director General of Mahosot Hospital, Dr Phisith Phoutsavanh said “We need to cooperate with Thailand to continue to develop capacity and knowledge in technical medicine and other related fields especially as these fields continue to develop daily.”

Many patients with gastrointestinal problems suffered in the past because the capabilities for treatment in Laos were limited, he explained.

The workshop provided essential knowledge on the use of this new medical equipment and provided a good opportunity for Lao participants to share their experiences about patient’s gastrointestinal problems.

“If doctors don’t understand how to use the endoscope equipment they will have difficulty in detecting and treating gastrointestinal problems because this is new medical equipment,” he said

According to Mahosot Hospital, in 2017, about 900 people were examined using endoscopes and over 350 of them were found to be suffering from gastrointestinal problems.

In 2015, some 800 people were examined and over 300 were found to have gastrointestinal disorders, health officials said.

For several years, Mahosot Hospital has held discussions on the use of endoscopes to operate or remove tissue for biopsies in collaboration with Japan’s Nagoya University and Thailand in the eventual preparation of an endoscopy training centre in Laos.

Despite moves by the young prince to modernise the economy and society — including lifting a ban on women driving — the kingdom has stepped up repression of religious, intellectual and feminist dissidents.

And the crown prince’s guiding hand is seen behind an increasingly assertive foreign policy.

War in Yemen

Saudi Arabia has since March 2015 spearheaded a regional military intervention in Yemen, in support of a government that is fighting rebels backed by Riyadh’s arch-rival Iran.

The Saudi-led coalition has carried out air strikes that rights groups say have often killed civilians.

On August 9, 51 people, including 40 children, were killed in an air strike on a bus in the northern rebel stronghold of Saada.

The coalition has acknowledged errors but accused the Huthi rebels of using civilians as human shields.

An August 28 report by a United Nations panel of experts accused both sides of violations but said that coalition air strikes had caused “most of the documented civilian casualties” and voiced “serious concerns about the targeting process”.

The Saudi-led coalition accused the report’s authors of inaccuracies.

The UN says there have been nearly 10,000 confirmed deaths in Yemen’s conflict since the coalition’s intervention.

Ritz-Carlton’s ‘gilded cage’

In September 2017, the Saudi authorities arrested around 20 people, including influential preachers and intellectuals.

And on November 4, a vast anti-corruption campaign got off the ground. Riyadh’s luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel served for three months as a de facto detention centre for dozens of princes and senior officials suspected of graft or disloyalty.

A number of suspects, including billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, were freed only after paying substantial financial settlements to the authorities.

Hariri’s mysterious resignation

On November 4, 2017, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri made a shock resignation announcement during a trip to Riyadh.

He cited threats to his life back home and blamed Iran for the region’s woes, before reappearing in a television interview days later looking exhausted and prompting rumours he was being detained by the Saudis.

France intervened and Hariri returned three weeks ago via Paris to Lebanon, where he reversed his resignation and said he was open to dialogue with the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.

Saudi Arabia denied intimidating Hariri into quitting his post and holding him against his will.

Journalist’s disappearance

Mystery surrounds the fate of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who has been missing since entering the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate on October 2.

Khashoggi has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since last year to avoid possible arrest, after criticising Prince Salman and the intervention in Yemen.

Riyadh said the 59-year-old journalist, a contributor to the Washington Post, had left the Saudi consulate shortly after arriving.

But Turkish police believe he was killed by a team of assassins who were sent to Istanbul and departed the same day, according to a government source.

Riyadh called the allegations “baseless”, while Prince Mohammed invited Turkish authorities to search the consulate, stressing his country had “nothing to hide”.

Meng has resigned “with immediate effect” and Senior Vice President Kim Jong Yang of South Korea has become acting president, Interpol said in a statement.

Meng, the first Chinese president of Interpol, was last heard from on September 25 as he left Lyon, where the police agency is based, for China.

That day, his wife said he sent a social media message telling her to “wait for my call”, before sending a knife emoji signifying danger. She said she feared for his life.

Beijing, which had remained tight-lipped about Meng’s fate since French officials disclosed his disappearance on Friday, said in a one-line statement that Meng “is currently under investigation on suspicion of violating the law”.

Interpol also said in its statement that it will elect a new president for the remaining two years of the current mandate at its general assembly to be held in Dubai on November 18-21.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Kim on Sunday morning for around two hours of talks followed by a lunch in the North’s capital, before flying to Seoul on a whirlwind diplomatic visit to the region.

Pompeo said “he agreed with Chairman Kim to hold the second US-North Korea summit at the earliest date possible”, South Korea’s presidential office said in a statement, although no specific time or location has yet been agreed.

Pompeo and Kim also discussed “denuclearisation steps that will be taken by North Korea and the issue of attendance by the US government,” as well as “corresponding measures” to be taken by the United States, the statement said.

The visit was Pompeo’s fourth to North Korea.

Trump met Kim in Singapore in June for the first-ever summit between the two countries, resulting in what critics say was only a vague commitment by Kim towards denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

“We continue to make progress on agreements made at Singapore Summit. Thanks for hosting me and my team,” Pompeo tweeted.

Kim also praised their “nice meeting”, telling Pompeo via an interpreter following the morning’s talks that it was “a very nice day that promises a good future… for both countries”.

The North Korean leader also invited inspectors to visit the Punggye-ri nuclear test facility, which Pyongyang took apart in May, “to confirm that it has been irreversibly dismantled”, according to a State Department readout of the meeting.

– ‘Gangster-like demands’ –

Since the Singapore summit, the road towards warmer ties has been bumpy.

Washington and Pyongyang have sparred over the exact terms of the vaguely-worded agreement in Singapore, with the US pushing to maintain sanctions and pressure against the North until its “final, fully verified denuclearisation”.

Last month, the North’s foreign minister told the United Nations there was “no way” his country would disarm first as long as tough US sanctions remain against his country.

After a previous visit to Pyongyang in July, Pompeo had said the two foes made progress on key issues — but within hours of his departure the North condemned “gangster-like” demands from the US, raising questions over how much the two sides really saw eye to eye.

Another planned trip by Pompeo to Pyongyang was scrapped after what Trump said was insufficient progress towards implementing the terms of the Singapore declaration.

An official on Sunday’s latest visit to Pyongyang with Pompeo said the trip was “better than the last time”, but added: “It’s going to be a long haul.”

Following his arrival in Seoul from Pyongyang on Sunday, Pompeo said at a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in that he had “a good productive conversation” with Kim, in talks which represented “another step forward”.

The dovish Moon, who held three summits with Kim this year and also brokered the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore, said Sunday the “whole world” was watching with keen interest the outcomes of Pompeo’s trip.

“I hope your trip to North Korea and the upcoming second US-North Korea summit will provide a good opportunity for achieving irreversible, decisive progress in terms of denuclearisation and the peace process on the Korean peninsula.”

Grand bargain

Analysts say Washington may now consider new options as China, Russia and South Korea seek to relax sanctions.

“North Korea took some steps towards denuclearisation and the US will face criticism from the international community if it continues to demand complete denuclearisation without any lifting of sanctions,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

“We can’t rule out the possibility that Washington… may move in the direction of partial easing of sanctions based on progress in denuclearisation,” he said.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha has given a hint of what a grand bargain between the two countries could look like.

In an interview with the Washington Post, she said the North could agree to dismantle Yongbyon, its signature nuclear site.

In exchange, the United States would declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War — which concluded with an armistice rather than a peace treaty — but North Korea would stop short of delivering an exhaustive list of its nuclear facilities, she said.

After Seoul, Pompeo ends his trip Monday in China, North Korea’s political and economic lifeline.

The Beijing stop could be tense as it comes days after Vice President Mike Pence delivered a blistering speech accusing China of military aggression, commercial theft, rising human rights violations and electoral intervention against Trump.

Acting Serdang OCPD Supt Mohd Rosdi Daud said the baby, who was barely a few days old, suffered injuries to his legs and knees, believed to be from dog bites when passers-by discovered him.

“The baby has been sent to Serdang Hospital for treatment.

“He is placed in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and is in stable condition,” Supt Mohd Rosdi said when contacted.

He urged anyone with information to contact the Serdang police district headquarters or the nearest police station.

“Based on their initial findings, the police believe that the journalist was killed by a team especially sent to Istanbul and who left the same day,” the official told AFP on Saturday.

It came hours after police confirmed that around 15 Saudis, including officials, arrived in Istanbul on two flights on Tuesday and were at the consulate at the same time as Khashoggi.

The Washington Post contributor had gone to the consulate on an administrative errand but “did not come back out” of the building, police had told the state-run Anadolu news agency.

On the back of the preliminary investigation, Ankara announced Saturday it had opened an official probe into his disappearance.

The state-run Saudi Press Agency, quoting an unnamed official at the Istanbul consulate, denied the reports of Khashoggi’s murder.

“The official strongly denounced these baseless allegations,” the agency wrote, adding that a team of Saudi investigators were in Turkey working with local authorities.

Reacting to news of the alleged murder, the journalist’s Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, said on Twitter she “did not believe he has been killed”.

In his columns, Khashoggi has been critical of some policies of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Riyadh’s intervention in the war in Yemen.

The former government adviser, who turns 60 on October 13, has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since last year to avoid possible arrest.

– ‘We have nothing to hide’ –

Press freedom campaigners condemned reports of Khashoggi’s possible murder, with the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists demanding Riyadh give “a full and credible account” of what happened to him inside the consulate.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Twitter that if reports of Khashoggi’s death were confirmed, “this would constitute a horrific, utterly deplorable, and absolutely unacceptable assault on press freedom”.

Prince Mohammed said in an interview with Bloomberg published Friday that the journalist had left the consulate and Turkish authorities could search the building, which is Saudi sovereign territory.

“We are ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises,” he said, adding that “we will allow them to enter and search and do whatever they want to do… We have nothing to hide”.

The Saudi crown prince also said he understood that Khashoggi had entered the consulate but then “got out after a few minutes or one hour”.

“We are investigating this through the foreign ministry to see exactly what happened at that time,” he added.

According to his fiancee Cengiz, Khashoggi had visited the consulate to receive an official document for his marriage.

Turkey’s foreign ministry on Wednesday summoned Saudi Arabia’s ambassador over the issue.

A spokesperson for the US State Department said: “We are not in a position to confirm these reports, but we are closely following the situation.”

– ‘Reasoned criticism’ –

Khashoggi fled the country in September 2017, months after Prince Mohammed was appointed heir to the throne, amid a campaign that saw dozens of dissidents arrested including intellectuals and Islamic preachers.

The journalist said he had been banned from writing in the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, owned by Saudi prince Khaled bin Sultan al-Saud, over his defence of the Muslim Brotherhood which Riyadh has blacklisted as a terrorist organisation.

He has also criticised Saudi Arabia’s role in Yemen, where Riyadh leads a military coalition fighting alongside the government in its war with Iran-backed rebels.

The Washington Post chose to leave a blank space where Khashoggi’s column would have been in its Friday edition in support of the missing writer.

In an article published by Al-Jazeera this week, journalist and analyst Bill Law described Khashoggi as “a brilliant journalist with a fiercely independent mind but with sufficient pragmatism to know just how close to the red lines he could go”.

“His is a voice of reasoned criticism and wise comment that the Saudi crown prince should listen to,” wrote Law, who said he had known Khashoggi for 16 years.

Saudi Arabia, which ranks 169th out of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index issued by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), has launched a modernisation campaign since Prince Mohammed’s appointment as heir to the throne.

But the ultra-conservative kingdom, which won plaudits in June for lifting a ban on women driving, has drawn heavy criticism for its handling of dissent.

Khashoggi’s criticism of Prince Mohammed’s policies have appeared in both the Arab and Western press.

In a March 6 Guardian editorial co-authored with Robert Lacey, he wrote: “For his domestic reform programme, the crown prince deserves praise. But at the same time, the brash and abrasive young innovator has not encouraged or permitted any popular debate” on the changes.

The epicenter of the quake was located about 19 kilometers (12 miles) northwest of the city of Port-de-Paix, the US Geological Survey reported.

Government spokesman Eddy Jackson Alexis told AFP that 11 people were so far reported dead, seven of them in Port-de-Paix, the capital of Haiti’s Nord-Ouest department.

Four others were killed in the town of Gros-Morne, about 50 kilometers to the southeast.

The quake, which was felt across the country, struck at 8:10 pm (0010 GMT Sunday) at a shallow depth of 11.7 kilometers.

Haiti’s civil protection agency said two minor aftershocks were registered, adding that no tsunami warning was issued in connection with the quake activity.

The tremor rattled the capital Port-de-Prince, sparking emotion among residents still reeling from the massive 2010 earthquake that left at least 200,000 people dead and 300,000 more wounded.

“I urge the population to remain calm,” President Jovenel Moise said on Twitter, adding that local and regional authorities were assisting those in need and that some damage had been reported.

Prime Minister Jean-Henry Ceant is heading up an inter-ministerial disaster response task force, he said on Twitter.

“The injured are being treated at area hospitals,” the civil protection agency said late Saturday, noting that some of the injuries were sustained when people panicked after the quake.

The agency confirmed that some homes were destroyed or damaged, without offering specific figures.

Images of damaged homes and partially destroyed buildings were circulating on social media, but AFP was not immediately able to confirm their authenticity.

The Nord-Ouest department is the poorest part of impoverished Haiti, with many isolated areas due to the dire state of the roads.

The devastating 7.0-magnitude quake in January 2010 left more than 1.5 people homeless. Tens of thousands remain in makeshift camps.

The damage caused was worth an estimated 120 percent of GDP in Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

Longer-term reconstruction has been hampered by lingering political chaos in the nation of nearly 11 million people, and by a deadly cholera epidemic introduced by infected Nepalese UN peacekeepers sent in after the quake.

    Kavanaugh was sworn in shortly after the Senate voted 50-48 in his favor — a move that cemented the high court’s shift to the right under the Republican leader, who has chosen two of the nine sitting justices.

Protesters rallied in Washington and other US cities against the ascent of the 53-year-old judge, who has faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and been criticized for his angry partisan rhetoric.

The prolonged nomination battle has roiled American politics, disrupting the status quo on Capitol Hill and firing up both Republicans and opposition Democrats a month before crucial midterm elections.

The two-vote margin of victory made it the closest Supreme Court confirmation vote since 1881 — and by far the most contentious since Clarence Thomas in 1991.

“This is a historic night,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Kansas after signing Kavanaugh’s commission aboard Air Force One.

“I stand before you today on the heels of a tremendous victory for our nation, our people and our beloved Constitution.”

Trump will host Kavanaugh at the White House for a public swearing-in ceremony on Monday, following Saturday’s formal oath-taking at the high court.

– Republicans ‘fired up’ –

Kavanaugh’s nomination as a replacement for retiring justice Anthony Kennedy was controversial from the start — but the initial focus was solely on the conservative views held by the married father of two.

But his ascent to the Supreme Court was thrown into doubt when university research psychologist Christine Blasey Ford testified that he had sexually assaulted her at a party when they were in high school.

Ahead of the Senate vote, protesters vented their rage on the steps of the US Capitol.

As they chanted “Shame!” and “November is coming!” police took several dozen demonstrators down the steps and put them in plastic flex-cuffs.

Later, the protesters moved to the Supreme Court, at one point rushing the steps and banging on the building’s ornate bronze doors.

“I am here because President Trump mocked sexual assault victims,” said North Carolina native Kara Harrington, 50.

“It unleashed something inside me. I was assaulted when I was younger and I didn’t tell anybody.”

In the Senate chamber, the vote was disrupted on several occasions by angry protests from the gallery.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has railed against Kavanaugh’s critics, said he was “proud” of his colleagues and predicted a bright future for his party.

“Our base is fired up. We finally discovered the one thing that would fire up the Republican base, and we didn’t think of it. The other side did it,” he told reporters after Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

 – Trump triumphant –

Indeed, Kavanaugh’s confirmation reflects a high-water mark of the Trump presidency, before the halfway point: Republican control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, along with a firm conservative majority on the judiciary’s top court.

But the saga — fueled by ugly accusations and counter-claims aired at nationally televised hearings, followed by an 11th-hour FBI probe to address the assault allegations — has inflamed political passions.

The nomination laid bare the partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill and the political polarization of America, ahead of the midterm Congressional elections set for November 6.

In Kansas, Trump seized on the moment to skewer his opponents.

“The radical Democrats have turned into an angry mob,” he said.

“The Democrats are willing to cause such destruction in the pursuit of power — just imagine the devastation they would cause if they ever obtained the power they so desperately want.”

He hailed Kavanaugh as “a man of great character and intellect” and said he would work alongside Trump’s other Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch, to protect the “sacred rights” of Americans.

Democratic senators, who worked to block Kavanaugh, insisted the caustic battle would motivate their party faithful at the polls next month.

“It is a sad day, but the recourse will have to be on election day,” Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar told reporters.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, the only Republican to oppose Kavanaugh, said it was time for the Senate — and Americans — to “heal” after such a divisive few weeks.

She acknowledged the anguish of the protesters who interrupted the historic Senate vote, telling reporters afterwards: “I was closing my eyes and praying — praying for them, praying for us and praying for the country.”

South East Asia has seen the most penetration with China leading the way. In the last decade China has grown tremendously by providing internet from 22 million people to 772 million people in the last decade. China’s internet availability rate has reached 55.8 per cent, exceeding the world average by 4.1 percentage points.

In India, internet penetration in last ten years has jumped from five million to 462 million by 2017. It is expected to grow up to 500 million in this year.  However, there is a rural urban divide in the country in terms of internet penetration.

In the last decade internet penetration in Indonesia has grown from 2 million to 143 million. It is followed by Japan with 118 million. Japan although has been far ahead of other countries ten years back with the internet penetration at 47 million in the year 2000.

In Bangladesh, Philippines and Vietnam 80 million, 67 million and 64 million people respectively have access to internet.  Thailand has made internet available to 57 million people in the last ten years.

South Korea was second to Japan in the year 2000 with internet availability to 19 million people. The internet has now reached 47 million people by last year end.

Pakistan has improved considerably from providing access to 0.13 million people a decade ago to 44 million by the end of last year. Malaysia, Nepal and Myanmar have made internet available to 25 million, 18 million and 16 million people respectively by 2017.

By the end of last year 8 million people in Cambodia had access to internet followed by Sri Lanka and Singapore with internet availability to 6 million and 4 million people respectively.  Laos and Mongolia have provided internet availability to 2 million people. The smaller countries like Brunei and Bhutan have made internet available to more than 400 thousand and 300 thousand people.

Even with these impressive numbers, level of connectivity still has to improve considerably especially in South Asia. There are many challenges in terms of infrastructure, affordable devices, data plans and digital literacy that need to be overcome.