American May Be Caned in Singapore for Overstaying Visa

People overstay their visas in America and they'll typically wind up with citizenship, the full menu of benefits and honorary membership in the Democratic Party.

Overstay your visa in Singapore and you're subjected to a 6th century form of punishment. I suspect fans at The U might not complain too much about this.

A former Florida State University football player may become the first American in 16 years to be caned in Singapore after he overstayed his visa, his lawyer said Thursday.

Kamari Charlton, who was a reserve tight end for Florida State from 1992 to 1996, was arrested Sept. 1 when he attempted to leave the city-state 169 days after his 90-day social visit pass expired, attorney M. Ravi said.

Charlton, who was born in the Bahamas and owns a construction company there, was in Singapore while his wife received medical care for pregnancy complications, Ravi said. It was not clear why Charlton and his wife chose Singapore for medical treatment.

Staying in Singapore more than 90 days after the end of a visa is punishable with a maximum jail term of six months and at least three cane strokes.

The Attorney General's office declined to comment on the case. A judge is to meet with lawyers from both sides in a pretrial conference Friday.

If found guilty, Charlton would be the first American citizen caned in Singapore since 1994, when teenager Michael Fay was punished for vandalism.

The Southeast Asian country boasts one of the lowest violent crime rates and highest standards of living in the world, but human rights groups often criticize the government for severe punishments, such as a mandatory death penalty for drug traffickers. Singapore also reiterated a ban on the sale of chewing gum and announced a crackdown on littering this year.

Blogger Facing Trial for 'Insulting' Singapore Judges

Obviously we cannot tell another country how to enforce their owns laws, but this is an ominous sign for freedom of speech on the web.

You can bet your last dollar as well there are enough petty tyrants on the bench and in public office in this country who would gladly have bloggers silenced in such fashion.

A US national said Tuesday he will be tried in Singapore next month for allegedly insulting two judges who had presided over cases involving an opposition leader.

Gopalan Nair, a former Singaporean lawyer who is now a US citizen, told AFP he has not yet hired a lawyer to represent him in the trial from September 8-19.

"At this moment, I am representing myself," he said.

Nair faces two charges of insulting judges on his blog. Each charge carries a jail term of up to one year, a 5,000 Singapore dollar fine (3,676 US) or both.

In the first charge, he is accused of insulting Justice Belinda Ang, who presided over a defamation case where Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew and his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong testified against the leader of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party (SDP).

Nair, 58, alleged that Ang was "prostituting herself during the entire proceedings by being nothing more than an employee of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his son and carrying out their orders," a court document said.

In the second charge, Nair is alleged to have sent an e-mail to Supreme Court Justice Lai Siu Chiu in 2006 saying he has "no shame" and that judges "are selling their souls and their conscience for money," according to a court document.

While I'm certainly not versed on Singapore law, it seems to me Nair was simply stating his own opinions and wasn't slandering anyone. Thank goodness we in the USA at least have the ability to state our own views without fear of punishment.

For now...

Blogger Faces Charges After 'Insulting' Judge

If they had laws like this in the United States, the blogosphere would likely shrivel up and die.

Considering the contempt judges are commonly held in, especially after last week's absurd Supreme Court ruling that terrorists have constitutional protection, you never know if these elitists would try something here.

Whatever the case, this is most disturbing.

A BLOGGER has been charged with insulting a Singapore judge by saying she was "prostituting herself".

In the blog, Gopalan Nair criticised a recent legal hearing at which Singapore founding father Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, testified in a defamation case they filed against an opposition party.

Mr Nair, 58, is charged with insulting Justice Belinda Ang Saw Ean by saying she was "prostituting herself during the entire proceedings, by being nothing more than an employee of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his son and carrying out their orders," a court document said.

Justice Ang presided over the hearing.

The latest Penal Code charge replaces an initial charge which alleged Mr Nair sent the comments in an email, his lawyer Chia Ti Lik said.

If convicted, Mr Nair, a former Singaporean lawyer now based in California, faces up to one year in prison and a SG$5000 ($3865) fine.

'Armpit Sniffer' To Be Caned

Sounds like the guy is mentally ill, to tell you the truth and the sentence sure seems a bit harsh.

A Singapore man with a penchant for sniffing women's armpits was sentenced to 14 years in jail and 18 strokes of the cane for molesting his victims, a local newspaper reported Friday.

The 36-year-old, who the Straits Times said was mentally unstable, had previous convictions for drug and sex-related offences.

He molested 23 women over the course of 15 months, smelling their armpits and touching them in lifts, staircase landings and their homes, the paper said. He was caught after a housewife reported him to the police.

The court meted out the jail term, normally reserved for hardcore criminals, saying the man was likely to commit crimes again, the paper reported.

Jemaah Islamiyah Hijack Plotter Escapes

Amazing, isn't it, how often these terrorists manage to escape? Usually it's in places like Yemen.

This time it's in Singapore.

A key member of a Southeast Asian terror network, who had plotted the hijacking of an airplane to be crashed into Singapore's Changi airport, has escaped from prison and is at large, the government said Wednesday.

Mas Selamat Kastari, the leader of the Singapore cell of Jemaah Islamiyah, escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Center on Wednesday afternoon, the Home Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

"Extensive police resources have been deployed to track him down," the ministry said, while urging the public to immediately contact police if they learn of his whereabouts.

"He walks with a limp and is presently at large. He is not known to be armed," it said.

Mas Selamat had been detained since March 2006 under Singapore's Internal Security Act, which provides for indefinite detention without trial, after having been deported from Indonesia.

Indefinite detention? Ooh, the Democrats will be very upset to find this out.

He had fled the city-state in December 2001 in the wake of the government's arrests of local JI members soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Mas Selamat is alleged to have been involved in JI plots to attack Western establishments such as the U.S. Embassy, the American Club and military installations here. After he fled Singapore, he allegedly plotted to hijack an airplane in order to crash it into Changi Airport.

He was detained in Indonesia in 2003 for possessing falsified identification documents and was held for three years before being deported to Singapore.

The Singapore government detained more than 30 alleged JI members here in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States alerted authorities here to the existence of the clandestine group in Southeast Asia.

Nit-Picking Monkeys Have All the Fun

Will pick nits for action

We only bring you the best in academic research around here.

Fresh off the latest olfactory news out of Purdue University (P.U.) comes some really interesting news from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

SELLING sex is said to be humankind's oldest profession but it may have deep evolutionary roots, according to a study into our primate cousins which found that male macaques pay for intercourse by using grooming as a currency.

Michael Gumert of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore made the discovery in a 20-month investigation into 50 long-tailed macaques in Kalimantan Tengah, Indonesia, New Scientist reports on Saturday.

On average, females had sex 1.5 times per hour.

But this rate jumped to 3.5 times per hour immediately after the female had been groomed by a male - and her partner of choice was likely to be the hunky monkey that did the grooming.

Market forces also acted on the value of the transaction.

If there were several females in the area, the cost of buying sex would drop dramatically - a male could "buy" a female for just eight minutes of nit-picking.

But if there were no females around, he would have to groom for up to 16 minutes before sex was offered.

Holding out for eight more minutes.

Pure torture.

I wonder if there any any bonuses involved for manicures or pedicures?

It figures pimping might be next, considering they can already work with numbers.