Japan inn apologises after hot spring bathwater found to have bacteria 3700 times over standard limit - CNA

TOKYO: The head of an upscale Japanese inn apologised on Tuesday (Feb 28) for only changing the water in its hot-spring bath every six months, allowing bacteria to breed 3,700 times over the standard limit.

Local ordinances stipulate a weekly replacement of the water in which guests traditionally soak naked together after taking showers, with men and women bathing separately.

Makoto Yamada, president of the company that operates the nearly 160-year-old inn, said the facility had neglected to keep the water hygienic by using enough chlorine.

He "didn't like the smell" of the chemical, he said at a press conference.

"It was a selfish reason," Yamada added, describing the lapse as a "wrongdoing that completely disregarded the health of our customers".

The lax measures at Daimaru Besso inn - where Japan's emperor Hirohito once stayed - began around December 2019.

Since then, staff at the facility in the southwestern Fukuoka region grew even more complacent as the number of guests dropped during the pandemic, Yamada said.

Even before the scandal made headlines, there had been red flags.

An inspection last year by authorities found double the permissible amount of legionella bacteria in the inn's bathwater.

At the time, the inn "falsified documents to claim that the chlorine had been properly added", Yamada admitted.

A subsequent probe by health authorities detected a whopping 3,700 times the standard limit of legionella.

The germ reportedly caused an individual who had visited multiple hotels including Daimaru Besso to fall sick.

Legionella bacteria can cause lung infections.

"My understanding of the law has been lax. I was complacent in thinking that legionella bacteria was just an ordinary germ that can be found everywhere," Yamada said.

The inn opened in 1865 and was about to commemorate its 160th anniversary when the scandal emerged.

"I feel sorry for our ancestors," Yamada said.

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2023-02-28 12:59:00Z
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China says US overstretching concept of national security, abusing state power on TikTok ban - CNA

BEIJING: China says the United States is overstretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to suppress foreign companies after the White House gave government agencies 30 days to remove Chinese-owned app TikTok on federal devices.

"We firmly oppose those wrong actions," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning at a regular news briefing on Tuesday (Feb 28).

The US government's ban on the video-sharing app reveals Washington’s own insecurities and are an abuse of state power, she added.

“How unsure of itself can the US, the world’s top superpower, be to fear a young person's favourite app to such a degree?”

PURGING TIKTOK APP FROM US FEDERAL DEVICES

The White House on Monday gave federal agencies 30 days to purge Chinese-owned video-snippet sharing app TikTok from all government-issued devices, setting a deadline to comply with a ban ordered by the US Congress.

Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young in a memorandum called on government agencies within 30 days to "remove and disallow installations" of the application on agency-owned or operated IT devices, and to "prohibit Internet traffic" from such devices to the app.

The ban does not apply to businesses in the United States not associated with the federal government, or to the millions of private citizens who use the hugely popular app.

However, a recently introduced bill in Congress would "effectively ban TikTok" in this country, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

"Congress must not censor entire platforms and strip Americans of their constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression," ACLU senior policy counsel Jenna Leventoff said in a release.

"We have a right to use TikTok and other platforms to exchange our thoughts, ideas, and opinions with people around the country and around the world."

Owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, TikTok has become a political target due to concerns the app can be circumvented for spying or propaganda by the Chinese Communist Party.

The law signed by US President Joe Biden last month bans the use of TikTok on government-issued devices. It also bans TikTok use in the US House of Representatives and Senate.

National security concerns over alleged Chinese spying have grown over the past month after a Chinese balloon traversed US airspace and was eventually shot down.

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2023-02-28 11:11:26Z
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China must be 'more honest' on COVID-19 origins, envoy says - CNA

WASHINGTON: China must be more honest about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US ambassador to China said on Monday (Feb 27), after reports that the US Energy Department concluded the pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak.

Nicholas Burns, speaking by video link at a US Chamber of Commerce event, said it was necessary to push China to take a more active role in the World Health Organization (WHO) if the UN health agency was to be strengthened.

China also needed to "be more honest about what happened three years ago in Wuhan with the origin of the COVID-19 crisis," Burns said, referring to the central Chinese city where the first human cases were reported in December 2019.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on Sunday that the US Energy Department had concluded the pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak, an assessment Beijing denies.

The department made its judgement with "low confidence" in a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress, the Journal said, citing people who had read the intelligence report.

Four other US agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that COVID-19 was likely the result of natural transmission, while two are undecided, the Journal reported.

The Energy Department did not respond to a request for comment.

President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday there were a "variety of views in the intelligence community" on the pandemic's origins.

"A number of them have said they just don't have enough information," Sullivan told CNN.

Asked to comment on the report, which was confirmed by other US media, China's foreign ministry referred to a WHO-China report that pointed toward a natural origin for the pandemic, likely from bats, rather than a lab leak.

"Certain parties should stop rehashing the 'lab leak' narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicizing the origins-tracing issue," foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.

"A LITTLE BIT ORWELLIAN"

Burns told the Chamber event that it was a difficult moment for US-China relations, with Beijing seeking to deflect blame after the US military this month downed an alleged Chinese spy balloon that drifted across the continental United States.

"We're now in this surreal moment where the Chinese, who I think lost the debate over the balloon globally, lost influence and credibility around the world because of what they've done - they're now blaming this on us," Burns said.

"It's a little bit Orwellian. And it's a little bit frustrating, because I think everybody knows the truth here."

China reacted angrily when the US military downed the balloon on Feb 4, saying it was for monitoring weather conditions and had blown off course.

Burns added that it was the obligation of the United States to maintain its military strength "in and around Taiwan" to ensure the self-governed island claimed by Beijing has the ability to deter any kind of "offensive action" by China.

"It's also ... our responsibility to galvanise the rest of the world to make sure that the Chinese cannot get away with coercion or intimidation against Taiwan itself," he said.

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2023-02-27 18:48:00Z
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4 family members and a mistress: Who are the 5 linked to HK model Abby Choi's grisly murder? - The Straits Times

The authorities believe they have arrested all the suspects involved in the murder of 28-year-old Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi, whose dismembered body was discovered last week.

Her headless body was found in a rented village property in Tai Po, a suburb in Hong Kong. Parts of her body – including her bashed head – had been cooked in a large soup pot, with some remains kept in a refrigerator.

Four people aged between 28 and 65 have been charged in connection with the murder and appeared in court on Monday. They include Ms Choi’s former husband, former brother-in-law and former father-in-law, who were charged with murder. Her former mother-in-law faces one charge of perverting the course of justice.

The police have also arrested the mistress of Ms Choi’s former father-in-law and are investigating if she knew about the case. 

Ms Choi was reportedly attacked in a car and fell unconscious, before she was taken to the village house. Her exact time of death is still being investigated. As the suspects are not cooperating, police said investigations have been difficult.

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2023-02-27 10:28:15Z
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Murder of Hong Kong socialite: Who was Abby Choi? - CNA

Hong Kong police are investigating the murder of socialite and model Abby Choi, whose remains were found on Friday (Feb 24) at a rented three-storey house in Lung Mei Tsuen district of Tai Po, a suburb in Hong Kong.

Four people – her ex-husband Alex Kwong, 28, his father, 65, his elder brother, 31, and his 63-year-old mother – have been arrested and charged in connection with her death. The three men were charged with murder while the ex-husband's mother was charged with perverting the course of justice.

Another suspect, a 47-year-old woman said to be the lover of Choi’s ex-father-in-law, was also arrested.

On Saturday, police said they believe the victim and her ex-husband’s family had “financial disputes involving huge sums”.

“Someone was dissatisfied with how the victim handled her assets, which became a motive to kill,” superintendent Alan Chung told reporters.

Her ex-father-in-law, a former police sergeant who left the force in 2005, was allegedly the mastermind behind the murder plot, South China Morning Post reported, quoting a source.

Choi was the daughter of a wealthy family running a construction business with dealings in China, according to Hong Kong media reports, and had a personal net worth of more than HK$100 million (S$17.2 million).

She appeared on the cover of fashion and luxury lifestyle magazine L’Officiel Monaco last month, where she was described as a “style icon and media personality who took the world by storm with her impeccable sense of style and her unbridled passion for fashion”.

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2023-02-27 07:59:17Z
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Singapore to introduce Online Criminal Harms Act amid 'growing international consensus' for such laws: MHA - CNA

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will table new legislation later this year to better tackle crimes committed in cyberspace, said Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo in Parliament on Monday (Feb 27).

If passed by Parliament, the proposed Online Criminal Harms Act will grant the Government powers to stop or remove online communications that pave the way for crimes in the physical world, such as inciting violence.

The Act is aimed at closing the gaps left by the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act, which came into force in 2019, as well as the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act that was passed in Parliament in 2021.

Mrs Teo, who was speaking during the Committee of Supply debates, further noted that the Broadcasting Act was recently amended to “deal with harms that impact user safety, such as cyberbullying and content likely to undermine racial and religious harmony”.

The Infocomm Media Development Authority is now able to deal with harmful online content accessible to Singapore users, regardless of where the content is hosted or initiated.

The Government can also block access to egregious content on online communications services, including social media platforms, Mrs Teo said.

“But there remain gaps. There is online content which are criminal in their own right, or content which facilitate or abet such crimes,” she added.

These crimes include syndicated ones like scams, online incitement of mass public disorder, and malicious cyber activities such as phishing and the distribution of malware.

“We have been monitoring these developments closely and intend to update our suite of legislation to better protect our people,” Mrs Teo told the House.

She pointed out that online harms are “constantly evolving and take different forms” such as falsehoods, foreign interference and inappropriate sexual abuse material, while mediums are also exploited to incite violence, carry out scams at scale and for drug trafficking.

She added that there has been “growing international consensus for rules to combat online harm”, with the United Kingdom, the European Union, Germany and Australia having introduced or proposed new laws to regulate the online space.

MHA first said during the Committee of Supply debates in 2021 that it was studying potential levers to deal with criminal offences committed online.

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2023-02-27 08:34:47Z
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New Malaysia PM Anwar an 'old friend' of Singapore; both countries will manage differences constructively: Balakrishnan - CNA

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s development works on Pedra Branca are “needed to enhance maritime safety and security, and to improve the search and rescue capabilities in the area”, said Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan on Monday (Feb 27).

The works also ensure that Pedra Branca is "adequately protected against the threat of sea-level rise".

And these works are “fully in accordance” with international law and Singapore’s sovereignty over the island and its waters, said Dr Balakrishnan in Parliament.

In May 2022, Singapore temporarily suspended the works to facilitate discussions on Malaysia’s concerns and comprehensively address their queries “in the spirit of mutual cooperation and good faith”, noted Dr Balakrishnan. 

“In December 2022, Singapore put forward proposals to Malaysia to resolve the issue and to move forward with the work. Subsequently, we agreed to Malaysia’s request for more time for them to consider our clarifications and proposals,” he added.  

The development works are currently paused due to the monsoon season. 

“We will manage our differences constructively and pragmatically, and not allow any single issue to overshadow the entire relationship,” said Dr Balakrishnan. 

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2023-02-27 06:24:00Z
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