Greece opens higher education to private institutions
Greece will allow private higher education for the first time, with four foreign university branches set to begin teaching from September in Athens an...
Singaporean property tycoon Ong Beng Seng pleaded guilty on Monday to one charge of obstructing justice in a high-profile case that led to the imprisonment of former transport minister Subramaniam Iswaran last year.
Both the prosecution and defence requested judicial mercy due to Ong’s chronic illness, asking the court to impose a fine instead of a jail sentence.
He will be sentenced on 15 August.
A second charge of abetting an offence was taken into consideration.
Judicial mercy in Singapore allows courts to issue more lenient sentences under exceptional circumstances, such as terminal illness or when imprisonment may endanger a person's life.
The defence said Ong suffers from multiple myeloma, a type of incurable blood cancer that leaves him immunocompromised.
According to prosecutors, Ong had informed Iswaran that his associates were questioned and that a private flight manifest bearing Iswaran’s name for a Singapore-to-Doha trip had been seized by anti-graft investigators.
This prompted Iswaran to ask Ong to issue an invoice through Singapore GP, the promoter of the Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix, to bill him for the trip – a move prosecutors say Iswaran believed would reduce the likelihood of an investigation.
Iswaran, who was jailed for 12 months in October 2024 for obstructing justice and accepting more than $300,000 in gifts, became the first former cabinet minister in Singapore to be imprisoned.
He was placed under house arrest in February to serve the remainder of his sentence.
Ong had also provided Iswaran with tickets to English Premier League matches, the Singapore F1 Grand Prix, London musicals, and a private jet ride, among other favours.
Iswaran served as an adviser to the Singapore Grand Prix’s steering committee, while Ong, 78, holds the rights to the race.
The billionaire stepped down as managing director of Singapore-listed Hotel Properties in April.
A powerful eruption at Japan’s Shinmoedake volcano sent an ash plume more than 3,000 metres high on Sunday morning, prompting safety warnings from authorities.
According to the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck the Oaxaca region of Mexico on Saturday.
The UK is gearing up for Exercise Pegasus 2025, its largest pandemic readiness test since COVID-19. Running from September to November, this full-scale simulation will challenge the country's response to a fast-moving respiratory outbreak.
A Polish Air Force pilot was killed on Thursday when an F-16 fighter jet crashed during a training flight ahead of the 2025 Radom International Air Show.
Greece will allow private higher education for the first time, with four foreign university branches set to begin teaching from September in Athens and Thessaloniki.
Delta Air Lines has agreed to pay $79 million to settle a lawsuit stemming from a 2020 incident in which one of its planes dumped fuel over schools and neighborhoods near Los Angeles.
Volkswagen’s Brazil unit has been ordered to pay 165 million reais ($30.44 million) in damages for subjecting workers to slavery-like conditions on a farm during the 1970s and 1980s, labour prosecutors said on Friday.
Eight people, including Irish missionary Gena Heraty and a three-year-old child, have been released after nearly a month in captivity following a kidnapping at the Saint-Helene Orphanage in Kenscoff, near Haiti’s capital.
Britain, France, and Germany have confirmed that their proposal to extend the Iran nuclear deal and delay the reimposition of UN sanctions for 30 days “remains on the table,” UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward said on Friday at the United Nations.
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