8 theSun | TUESDAY APRIL 21 2009

news without borders

Singapore minister warns against twins’ surgery

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s health
minister has cautioned against a
planned surgery in the city-state to
separate Indian twin sisters joined
at the head, citing the risks involved,
a report said yesterday.
The operation is more likely to
harm the patients than improve their
situation, Health Minister Khaw Boon
Wan said in remarks carried by the
Straits Times.
A Singaporean neurosurgeon,
Keith Goh, has said he had been
asked by the state government of
Andhra Pradesh in India to surgically
separate five-year-old Indian twin
sisters Vani and Veena, possibly later
this year.
But Khaw said that in certain situ-
ations, it may be better not to operate
on conjoined twins.
“To change the course of nature
may do more harm than good,” he
was quoted as saying.
In some cases, surgeons also have
to pick one twin to die in order to save
the other, the health minister said.
“Even those who survive would
often be left with brain damage. So,
to what extent is this quality of life?”
he asked.
In 2001, Goh was involved in a
97-hour operation that separated
11-month-old Nepalese twins Ganga
and Jamuna Shrestha who were born
with fused skulls.
The surgery left Ganga with brain
damage and Jamuna unable to walk.
It also left a hole in Jamuna’s skull
covered only by a layer of skin.
Last year, Ganga died from respira-
tory problems at a hospital in Kath-
mandu, where she was being treated
for pneumonia and meningitis.
Goh was also involved in the tragic
operation of 29-year-old Iranian twins
– Ladan and Laleh Bijani – in July 2003.
Both women, joined at the head, died
from severe blood loss following a 52-
hour operation. – AFP

Jackie Chan’s comments

Sri Lanka gives Tigers criticised in China
BEIJING: Comments made by Hong- edge of China’s current situation.

24 hours to surrender
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka
yesterday gave the Tamil
Tigers 24 hours to surrender
or die after troops breached
a huge earthen defence and
unleashed an exodus of tens
of thousands of civilians held
there by the rebels.
Sri Lanka’s quarter-
century separatist war has
come down to a tiny strip
of coastline, where the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) are making
a last stand while urging a
ceasefire to protect civilians
they have refused to free.
With so many civilians
now outside the 17sq km no-
fire zone that is the only bat-
tlefield left, Sri Lanka warned
LTTE founder Vellupillai Pra-
bhakaran to surrender or face
a last military showdown.
“We have given a final
warning to Prabhakaran and
his terrorist group to surren-
der to the government forces
within 24 hours from 12
noon,” defence spokesman
Keheliya Rambukwella said
at the air force battle man-
agement centre in Colombo.
“Thereafter will be a
military course of action.”
The LTTE could not be
reached for comment, but the
pro-rebel www.TamilNet.com
reported “hundreds of dead
bodies and wounded civilians
were still lying in Matthalan
and Pokkanai”, two villages in
the no-fire zone.
“A large number of the
civilians fled towards LTTE-
held areas while around
8,000 were trapped and
captured by the (Sri Lankan
army),” it said, quoting its
own correspondent.
Between 25,000 and 35,000
people fled yesterday, said
Lakshman Hulugalle, director
of the military’s Media Centre
for National Security.
The largest single-day
exodus so far, which should
put the number of those
fleeing LTTE areas this
year at near 100,000, started
after soldiers fought past an
earthen berm blocking the
biggest land route in and out
of the no-fire zone.
Live video the military
said was being beamed from
an unmanned aerial vehicle
into the battle management
centre showed thousands
thronging around temporary
reception centres set up by
the army less than a kilome-
tre outside the no-fire zone.
“All of these small dots
you see are human beings
waiting to be checked,” air
force operations director,
Vice Air Marshal Kolitha
Gunatilleke, told reporters .
That process is designed
to weed out LTTE suicide
bombers.
Nonetheless, three explod-
ed themselves and killed at
least 17 people and wounded
200 yesterday. – Reuters
kong movie star Jackie Chan that
Chinese people “need to be controlled”
drew criticism in China’s press as it be-
latedly reported his views yesterday.
Chan, best-known for his martial-
arts comedies, told an annual meeting
of governments and business leaders
on Saturday that China should be wary
Local of allowing too many freedoms.
Counsel: “I don’t know whether it is better to
have freedom or to have no freedom,”
An numerous mainland news websites
unfinished quoted Chan as saying at the Boao
journey Forum for Asia.
“With too much freedom ... it can
pg 11 get very chaotic, could end up like in
Hongkong or like in Taiwan ... I’m
gradually beginning to feel that we
Chinese need to be controlled.”
The remarks drew wide comment
in the state media, with commentaries
criticising Chan for a lack of knowl-
“The comments made by Jackie Chan
show that he is ignorant of democracy,”
said a commentary on the Huamei web-
site, which is run by journalists.
“(His) statement is based on the
discriminatory view that Chinese
people cannot manage themselves
and is built on the idea that Chinese
are like a herd of sheep that lack self-
discipline and self-restraint.”
A commentary on the news website
of the Liaoning government in north-
east China said Chan had ignored
China’s efforts to build the rule of law
and improve people’s lives through
economic reforms.
“The Chinese people have risen
up and become the masters of their
nation, we are no longer slaves. But it
seems that this kind of free life is not
appropriate for our Mr Chan.”
Other news articles reported on the
negative reaction
amongst Chinese
communities in the
region.
“I haven’t met
anyone who thinks
Hongkong is in
chaos. I think he
should make an
apology and stop
talking such non-
sense,” Hongkong
lawmaker Emily
Lau said. – AFP

South Korea’s ‘prophet of

doom’ blogger acquitted
SEOUL: A South Korean
court acquitted a blogger
yesterday of spreading
false information, in a
case that triggered debate
about freedom of speech
in cyberspace and crtics
said was only launched
because his economic
doom postings angered
The authorities.
Defendant Park Dae-
the local currency and caused
financial authorities to inject
billions of dollars to stabilise
the Korean won.
“Even if there was recog-
nition that it was false infor-
mation, he cannot be seen as
having acted on purpose to
harm public interest consid-
ering the situation at the time
including the special nature
of the foreign exchange mar-
on cyber slander.
The Lee government has
also been backing media
reforms that would lift restric-
tions on big business from
owning broadcast networks,
which have led to protests at
TV networks whose union
members feel the move would
lead to cuts in press freedom.
Park’s lawyer said the
case arose from a misguided

fairest sung, who went by the

pseudonym “Minerva”
after the Greek goddess
of all ... of wisdom became a
household name last
Miss North Carolina year for his predic-
Kristen Dalton tions of sharp falls in
reacts after being the won and the local
crowned Miss stock market and the
USA 2009 during collapse of US invest-
the Miss USA ment bank Lehman
Pageant at the Brothers.
Planet Hollywood “He’s been found
Resort and Casino not guilty,” a court
in Las Vegas, Nevada official said by tel-
on Sunday. The ephone. The court
22-year old aspiring threw out charges
motivational speaker that he purposely
from Wilmington harmed market sen-
surpassed Miss timent by posting
California 2009 Carrie false information on
Prejean and Miss his blog.
Arizona 2009 Alicia- Prosecutors
Monique Blanco. said a posting Park
made in December
led to volatility in
REUTERSPIX
ket,” the court said.
As the markets tumbled last
year, the main financial regu-
lator warned it would crack
down on what it considered
malicious rumours. Some
economic analysts said they
had come under pressure from
authorities not to voice nega-
tive views on the economy.
Korean markets appeared
to have passed their worst tur-
moil in a decade at the time of
Park’s arrest in January but
suffered another setback in
March on lingering concerns
about the country’s ability to
secure dollars to repay debt.
Since the arrest, legal ex-
perts have questioned whether
authorities had legal grounds
to prosecute individuals on
views aired in online media.
The conservative party of
President Lee Myung-bak has
been pushing for a tough law
attempt by the government
to control public opinion in
cyber space.
“The law itself is unconsti-
tutional, and it is a dead law
where the computer cannot
be the subject of regulation,”
lawyer Park Chang-jong, who
is not related to the defendant,
told reporters after the verdict.
Park has been identified
by prosecutors as an unem-
ployed 30-year-old man who
kept to his modest apartment
in Seoul and learned of the
financial markets with books
he ordered online.
Since his detention, reports
have flooded local media say-
ing he was a quiet man with a
humble education background,
which experts said may be an
attempt to discredit him in a
society that places high value
on elite education and prestig-
ious jobs. – Reuters