Compiled by KHOO JIAN TENG, C.ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN
A LIT candle on an altar meant to honour her late husband tipped over and caused a fire in the living room of a house in Kuching, Sin Chew Daily reported.
The 66-year-old woman said her husband died about two weeks ago, so the family had set up an altar in the house as a tribute to him.
She believed the fire was triggered when one of the candles used for prayers fell on the altar.
The blaze happened at around noon on Sunday when the woman was having lunch in the kitchen while her 38-year-old daughter was asleep in her bedroom.
She heard the sound of something dropping in the living room and saw her living room set ablaze. The woman shouted to wake up her daughter. The two of them escaped unscathed from the house. All their furniture in the living room was destroyed.
> A PhD student in China’s Fujian province reached a settlement of 215,000 yuan (RM130,027) with a ride-sharing platform after he got injured when a bike he rented from them lost power, causing its wheel to lock which led to a crash, China Press reported.
The student named Xiao Li was deemed by a court to have suffered a “Grade 10 disability” after the accident left him with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), a torn meniscus and other injuries.
Doctors diagnosed him with a complete tear of the ACL and a tear of the lateral meniscus.
He underwent surgery and lengthy rehabilitation, which disrupted his research and academic studies. Despite the severity of his injuries, the ride-sharing platform apparently offered only a few hundred yuan as compensation through the insurance included with the bike rental.
Worried that he might need money for a second surgery, Xiao Li rejected the offer and filed a civil lawsuit seeking 264,500 yuan (RM159,964) in compensation for medical expenses, income loss, and emotional distress.
Following a pre-trial mediation, Xiao Li and the platform reached a settlement last month with the company for a one-off payment of 215,000 yuan (RM130,027).
(The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.)
