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is this the first case that a willing settlement was rejected? one party admit and willing to pay, the other party suffer injury, but the judge dun see it that way!

Insurance company AXA Singapore has said it intends to recover from the estate of deceased driver Ma Chi whatever payouts it makes to victims involved in the Ferrari crash in May. This is on top of its decision to reject any liability it has to offer a payout to Ma's estate. The accident saw Ma, a China national, allegedly running a red light and colliding with a taxi, which then crashed into a motorcycle. Three people died from the collision. They included Ma, taxi driver Mr Cheng Teck Hock and his passenger Ms Shigemi Ito. Ma Chi's wife and mother took AXA Singapore to court after the insurance company said it was withdrawing coverage of the fatal incident. Channel NewsAsia understands that the cost of the payout is equivalent to the cost of a brand new Ferrari 599 GTO, which is worth about $1,539,200. Under the law here, all road traffic victims who are injured or fatally injured by motor vehicles on public roads would receive the appropriate compensation. But AXA Singapore, which is represented by United Legal Alliance, explained that the collision was not considered an "accident" under its insurance policy. Its lawyers highlighted that Ma had driven the car "at an extremely excessive speed, far above the road speed limit of 60km/h." They also noted that Ma failed to stop at the junction despite the lights showing red, failed to stop or slow down to avoid the collision, and collided into the taxi resulting in the taxi hitting a motorcycle. The defence counsel claimed that Ma's conduct was "so clearly reckless and dangerous that it was not a risk intended to be covered under the insurance policy." They also argued that Ma was "doing an act which he knew or ought to have known was courting imminent death to himself and others." The insurance company added that "the collision was highly probable, forseeable and to be expected." According to AXA Singapore, this means that any deaths or injuries in the collision was not due to "an accidental means" under its policy. Ma was not drunk at the time of the deadly crash, according to a Health Sciences Authority report. Channel NewsAsia understands that none of the third party victims - Mr Cheng Teck Hong, Ms Shigemi Ito, Ms Wu Weiwei, who was in Ma's car, and motorcyclist Mr Muhammad Najib Ghazali, have made any claims against AXA Singapore at this point. AXA Singapore said that it is prepared to pay compensation to third party victims even if no judgment has been entered against Ma's Estate, "subject to Ma Chi's Estate agreement or the Court's direction." But it added that it intends to recover the claims from Ma's estate with its counterclaim. AXA first informed the Ma family of its decision to reject liability earlier this year. Shortly after, the family stated that they disagreed with AXA's position. A spokesperson from AXA Singapore said that the counterclaim is a standard process in the case of a repudiated or voided policy. A pre-trial conference is expected to take place in October. Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/sin...1223953/1/.html

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/suntec-brawl-victim-rejects-s-20k-offer--report.html 3 Cheers to Paul L Liew... Something seems to be very wrong with this case. In fact when this A**es put up for bail and declared that they are required to travel to...blah blah country, doesn't our judicial system smell a rat after the Romanian have escaped in the same manner. (except no bail) IMO, we really needed to buck-up our Law system....I wonder how is our MIW will handle this issue further down. Forummers what's your take on this case? Thanks for your feed back.

By Chua Yini | SingaporeScene -Yahoo News. The Housing and Development Board's (HDB) rejection of a proposal by Toh Yi residents for an alternative site for studio apartments has left some residents upset. HDB plans to go ahead with initial plans of building a block of 130 units of studio apartments at Toh Yi Drive catered for the elderly, despite a petition and proposal for an alternative site submitted by a group of residents. "In the case of Toh Yi, HDB has looked into the various feedback and made adjustments to the proposals to address residents' concerns, wherever feasible," said HDB in a statement on Monday. About 230 Toh Yi residents signed a petition earlier this month to Holland-Bukit Timah MP Sim Ann, opposing the government's plan to build the apartments because the identified site was the 19-block estate's only green space and it was situated on a slope that would make it difficult for elderly tenants to climb. Addressing the residents' proposal for an alternative site, HDB said that it has "carried out a detailed evaluation and assessed this [HDB's original plan to build at Toh Yi Drive] as the most suitable site available in the vicinity for studio apartments". According to HDB, the four alternative sites proposed were unsuitable as they were too small, were exposed to heavy traffic or impinged on car parking demands. Others have already been earmarked for future developments. In addition, HDB will include common facilities within the site, such as a community garden, playground and fitness stations. It has also pledged to improve the accessibility of the area "with elderly residents in mind". However, the petition organiser Ricky Goh Chok Chai expressed his unhappiness with MP Sim Ann's handling of the matter. In an email cc-ed to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan and the three other Holland-Bukit Timah MPs Christopher De Souza, Liang Eng Hwa and Vivian Balakrishnan, the 58-year-old businessman wrote that the residents involved would "manage [their] own housekeeping from now on and probably have to look into forming our own 'management committee' to deal directly with HDB for the internal affair of the estate of Toh Yi". He revealed the presence of a "shadow committee" in place, called the Concerned Residents' Caring Community Committee (CRCCC), and commented that the other MPs of the GRC seemed "bochap" (unconcerned) about the matter. Speaking to Yahoo! Singapore, Sim said: "Most residents I have spoken to told me they do not object to having studio apartments in the estate. Many welcome the idea, in fact. After all, we will all grow old. The key question has always been about the site. A minority of residents have voiced objections because of the site." However, she added that HDB's verdict was a "reasonable outcome that addresses the overall interests of residents in [the] estate". "HDB has evaluated the very considerable amount of feedback we had submitted. It has explained its reasons for the choice of site. It has promised to incorporate community facilities into the studio apartment project and also help improve amenities elsewhere within the estate," said the MP. The petition and proposal submitted by Goh's group has also irked around 50 residents in Toh Yi, who have submitted another petition to have the units built elsewhere. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thinks this is expected, no other way out. Now other GRC MP kaki also got blamed.

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Dec, 12, 2007 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (AP) Handing a major defeat to the auto industry, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that California can regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Anthony Ishii clears one of the hurdles in California's effort to regulate tailpipe emissions from cars, trucks and sports utility vehicles. Automakers sued the state over the tailpipe standards it approved in 2004, which would force automakers to build cars and light trucks that produce about 30 percent fewer greenhouse gases by 2016. However, the state still needs a waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to begin implementing the program. The EPA has not yet issued a decision. California and 14 other states sued the agency in November seeking quicker action. "It's a major victory and a giant step forward for California," California Attorney General Jerry Brown said of Wednesday's ruling. "I hope this will get the attention of President Bush and have him support significant caps on greenhouse gas emissions." In its lawsuit against the state, the auto industry argued that it was the federal government's responsibility to establish one uniform fuel economy standard. Without one, manufacturers would be forced to produce vehicles using too many different efficiency standards. They argued that a federal energy law passed in 1975 gives the U.S. Department of Transportation sole jurisdiction over fuel economy. But Ishii rejected that claim, saying Congress gave California and the EPA the authority to regulate vehicle emissions, even if those rules are more strict than those imposed by the federal government. "While we have not yet had an opportunity to analyze the California federal court's decision, we are obviously very disappointed by this result," said Michael Stanton, president and CEO of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers. Under the Clean Air Act, California is the only state that can set its own vehicle pollution standards, because it started regulating air pollution before the U.S. EPA was created. Other states are free to choose either the California rules or the federal government's. The state's tailpipe emissions are key to California's goal of lowering greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. About a third of the state's emissions come from cars, pickups and sport utility vehicles, a figure that will only grow if they are not regulated in the nation's most populous state.

China rejects pork imports from U.S., Canada Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:47 AM ET BEIJING (Reuters) - China has rejected shipments of pork kidney from the United States and of spare ribs from Canada after finding traces of a banned growth agent in them, in the latest volley of cross-border accusations over product quality. The Xinhua news agency cited the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) as saying that the 18.4-tonne shipment of frozen kidneys and the 24-tonne shipment of frozen pork ribs had been returned to the exporters by local quarantine officials in southern Guangdong province. The growth agent ractopamine, commonly used in the United States, is at the centre of negotiations between U.S. and Chinese officials over the pork trade. China has banned use of ractopamine and refuses to import pork containing it. Richard Raymond, the U.S. Agriculture Department's undersecretary for food safety, said on Thursday following meetings with the AQSIQ that he hoped Beijing could change its stance on ractopamine if Codex Alimentarius, an international food safety body, could endorse tolerance levels for it. China has highlighted several quality concerns over U.S. products in recent months, in apparent response to complaints in Washington about the safety of Chinese exports ranging from toys to toothpaste. Beijing is also taking steps to clean up its own manufacturing sector, whose reputation has been tarnished by recent product recalls, including for lead-tainted toys. Separately, Xinhua said that authorities had reprimanded dozens of factories in eastern Zhejiang province after finding that 40 percent of the children's clothing they produced did not meet quality standards. The district where the factories are located, in Huzhou city, makes one fourth of the country's children's garments, Xinhua said. It cited the local quality supervision administration as saying their "quality index" was at its lowest since 2003. The garments had problems with their dyes, fiber content and stitching, Xinhua said, adding that none of the companies involved exported their products. The inspection was part of a nationwide campaign to improve product quality and food safety in the wake of the recent scandals, it said.