INCHEON — A 12-year-old YouTuber living in the United States has been identified as the alleged culprit of a terror threat against Incheon International Airport on the national holiday next week, officials said Friday.

The teenage boy, who was born in South Korea and is residing in the US, is accused of having uploaded a YouTube video that warns of an attack at the Incheon airport, west of Seoul, at 11 a.m. on the March 1 Independence Movement Day, according to the Incheon International Airport Police Corps.

The 10-second-long video, uploaded Sunday, has since changed its content to a message that Osama Bin Laden, the late leader of Al Qaeda and the mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks, should not be blamed

The airport police launched an investigation into the online content after being tipped off about the clip on Tuesday.

With the cooperation of Google, the parent company of YouTube, the police confirmed that the video was uploaded in the US and tracked down the suspect based on his login history.

Investigators said they have shut down the boy’s YouTube channel and are considering charging him with violation of the Aviation Security Act.

The police said they will beef up security at the airport for a while as a precautionary measure, although there is scant possibility of terrorist attacks.

“It seems difficult to find ways to question the YouTuber who uploaded the video after gaining cooperation from the foreign authorities,” the police said. Yonhap

ASUNCION: The Paraguayan government must investigate “impartially and without delay” the deaths of two 11-year-old girls in a police and military operation against a rebel group in the north of the country, the regional office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on Sunday (Sep 6).

The Paraguayan government initially said the two girls were teenagers and labeled them as “rebels” who were killed during a military operation targeting members of the Paraguayan People’s Army (EPP) in the Yby Yaú area, about 370km to the north of capital Asuncion.

The EPP, a small armed group modeled after Colombian rebels and active in marijuana-growing regions in the north, has been accused of kidnappings and attacks in Paraguay for over a decade. The government has been carrying out raids on the group.

On Friday evening, following a request from Paraguay, Argentina said it had consulted its national registry and established that the deceased were both 11 years of age and Argentine citizens.

Its claim was backed by a Paraguayan forensic specialist who local media said examined the bodies, which were buried and then exhumed for the fresh inspection. He told reporters that his tests confirmed their age as 11.

In a statement issued on Sunday, a pro-bono group called the Argentine Lawyers’ Guild identified the girls as Lilian Villalba and Maria del Carmen Villalba, and said they were both nieces of Carmen Villalba, a known EPP member who is in jailed in Paraguay over her involvement in attacks, including one in which a policeman died.

The group said the girls’ parents were also EPP members and they had been in the area visiting family members.

“Regardless of being the children of Paraguayan peasants and EPP militants, the girls were civilians and were also Argentines, who were not part of the fierce class struggle that is being waged in Paraguay,” it said in a statement.

“This is a very serious incident that ended the lives of two girls whom the state ought to have protected as part of its obligation to guarantee human rights,” said Jan Jarab, OHCHR’s South America representative, in a statement.

In response to the UN statement, Paraguay´s Foreign Affairs Ministry expressed its “deep regret” for the girl’s deaths and said an investigation was already underway, which would be conducted by “impartial and independent” authorities.

SINGAPORE – A 31-year-old dormitory resident was reported as the sole locally transmitted case on Sunday (Feb 28).

The male Bangladeshi national who works as a delivery assistant at Chng Woodworking resides in a dormitory located at Kranji Way.

His job entails loading and unloading of goods, and he does not interact with clients, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

He was identified as a close contact of a previous case – a colleague at the same workplace – and placed on quarantine at a dedicated facility on Feb 23.

His swab taken on Feb 26 came back positive for Covid-19 and he was conveyed in an ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

His earlier tests from rostered routine testing – the last being on Feb 14 – were negative for Covid-19 infection, MOH said. The ministry added that his serological test result has come back negative, indicating a likely current infection.

The remaining 10 cases were all imported and had been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival in Singapore.

The new imported cases comprised a dependant’s pass holder from Switzerland, four long-term visit pass holders from India and Myanmar, 4 work pass holders from India and the Philippines and a work permit holder from India.

The new cases take Singapore’s total to 59,936.

On Saturday (Feb 27), MOH reported that a 64-year-old Singaporean man died from Covid-19 complications on Friday after he had contracted the coronavirus while living in Indonesia.

As he was already an overseas registered case, he was not included in Singapore’s Covid-19 case count, MOH said.

The ministry said on Saturday the man had been living in Indonesia from March 17 last year and had a past history of hyperlipidaemia, or abnormally high levels of fats in his blood.

He first tested positive for the coronavirus on Jan 26 while in Indonesia and was hospitalised there the next day.

Meanwhile, seven more cases have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities and 59,808 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 18 patients remain in hospital, including one in critical condition, while 66 are recuperating in community facilities.

Singapore has had 29 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.

SINGAPORE: A 71-year-old woman was taken to hospital after a four-vehicle accident at the junction of Ulu Pandan Road and Clementi Road on Friday morning (Sep 11), said authorities.

Police said they were alerted to an accident involving a taxi, two cars and a lorry shortly after 9am.

“A 71-year-old female car driver was conscious when conveyed to National University Hospital,” said the Singapore Police Force.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) also said it was alerted to the road traffic accident, adding that its personnel took the injured person to the hospital.

A photo of the accident posted by ROADS.sg on Facebook showed people standing around the crash area, while multiple vehicles were stuck at the junction, resulting in a jam along the roads.

Police investigations are ongoing.

READ: 2 people taken to hospital after CTE accident involving 5 cars

SINGAPORE: A 51-year-old man befriended a 10-year-old girl on the social media application TikTok, pretending to be 25, before taking her to his house where he molested her.

Jambi Arbi was sentenced to 23 months’ jail on Wednesday (Sep 9) after pleading guilty to one count of using criminal force on a minor to outrage her modesty.

The court heard that Jambi, who freelanced in computer-aided design drafting, got to know the victim – a 10-year-old primary school student – on TikTok in late January this year.

They communicated frequently, with Jambi lying that he was 25 and telling her that he loved her and calling her “dear”.

On Feb 25, Jambi messaged the victim asking to meet her the next afternoon after she finished school.

She agreed as Jambi said he would take her to a games arcade and he also asked her to bring a shirt along.

The night before the outing, the victim’s father checked her handphone and found out that she was communicating with Jambi on the social media platform.

He saw Jambi professing his love to the victim and also read about the proposed meeting.

FATHER ASKED TEACHER TO PREVENT VICTIM FROM LEAVING SCHOOL

The victim’s father did not immediately confront the girl as she was asleep, but instead sent a message to his daughter’s teacher to tell her not to allow the victim to leave school after class was dismissed.

The next day, the victim’s father went to the school at 1.30pm, but could not find his daughter. Later, the teachers told him that she had left earlier and he called the police for help to locate her.

At about 2pm, the victim met Jambi at Yio Chu Kang MRT Station where the accused asked her to change out of her school attire to the shirt she brought and gave her a pair of sunglasses to wear.

He took her on his motorcycle and they ate at McDonald’s before going to a games arcade beside it.

The accused then took the girl to his house where he molested her, telling her it would “help her become more flexible” and “gain weight as she was too skinny”.

He kept kissing the girl which made her uncomfortable and terrified. She told him she wanted to return home, and Jambi eventually dropped her off at her school.

The girl returned home shortly after the police responded to the case, and Jambi was traced and arrested.

Deputy Public Prosecutor R. Arvindren asked for at least 22 months’ jail, including two months in lieu of caning as Jambi is above 50 and cannot be caned.

He called Jambi a “sexual predator who preyed on a young and unsuspecting 10-year-old victim for his sexual gratification”.

“He used a social media application to find his victim and finally put into action his perverted plan,” he said.

The girl was particularly vulnerable and was unable to extricate herself as she was trapped in Jambi’s house, he said.

Jambi had also tried to “bribe” the child into accepting his actions by buying her food and bringing her to the arcade, said the prosecutor.

To this day, the girl can clearly remember what happened and is “traumatised” by the incident.

For molesting the girl, Jambi could have been jailed for up to five years, fined, caned, or given any combination of these punishments.