Safe boxes crushed
HONG KONG- Safe boxes from a local branch of a Singapore-based bank were taken away and crushed as scrap metal, leaving customers shocked and angry at the loss of their most valued possessions, executives acknowledged Wednesday. Embarrassed bosses at DBS Bank (Hong Kong) said they will repay customers for their losses after 83 boxes filled with valuables were removed Saturday by a renovation contractor, then dumped and compressed in a junkyard. Workers scrambled to recover cash, crucial documents and smashed jewelry from the scrap heap, but DBS said it's too early to say what its liabilities will be. Local media have predicted it will come to millions of dollars. "It's a very unfortunate and regrettable incident," DBS spokeswoman Catherine Ong said Wednesday. Ong acknowledged the bank might face difficulties in ascertaining exactly what had been inside the boxes. "Of course we don't want to invite any fraudulent claims," Ong said. "If we feel some claims are dodgy, we will ask a lot of questions." The bank believes the mix-up was the result of human error, with no foul play suspected, Ong said. But after the bank resolves matters with customers it plans a full internal investigation into what went wrong. Ong said it was too early to say if anyone would be fired. As soon as the problem was discovered, bank employees and workers of a Japanese safe deposit box company, Kumihara, rushed to the scrapyard to see what could be salvaged, Ong said. "We have recovered some of the valuables like certificates, some cash and jewelry and the recovery process is still going on," Ong said. Some of the jewelry had been smashed, she said. The 83 boxes were removed, along with 837 empty ones, as the bank was expanding the size of a local branch and replacing older, small safe boxes with new, larger ones. Customers who lost treasured possessions or valuables were outraged. "This is absurd," the South China Morning Post quoted one victim as saying. "I put my stuff there because I trust the bank. How could something like this have happened?" The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the territory's de facto central bank, said it was taking "a very serious view of this matter" and would keep a close eye on how DBS resolves it. -AP
Man in Malaysia remarries after 51 intervening marriages
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia- A Malaysian septugenarian tied the knot in 1957 and tied it again and again - 53 times in all. This week, he's gone back to where he started, remarrying wife No. 1. "I am not a playboy. I just love seeing beautiful women," Kamaruddin Mohammed, 72, was quoted saying by the New Straits Times newspaper. Kamaruddin's latest bride, now 74, also was his the first woman he married and divorced. In between marrying Khadijah Udin, in 1957 and again Monday, the "easygoing charmer" married 51 times, including to an Englishwoman and a Thai. He stayed with the Thai the longest, for 20 years, the Times said. His shortest marriage lasted two days. All his previous marriages ended in divorce, except with the Thai woman, who died of cancer, he said. "After she died I thought of Khadijah and sent several people to inquire. I didn't expect her to accept it," said Kamaruddin, who worked for several multinational companies before retiring in 1992. Despite all the marriages, Kamaruddin said he is a one-woman man. "I don't like flings. I also don't believe in marrying more than one woman at a time," he told the Times. He said he is very happy to be reunited with Khadijah, to whom he was married the first time for only a year. Khadijah told the Times she accepted Kamaruddin's marriage offer because she was now living alone after the death of her third husband. "Kamaruddin also promised to look after me until the end of our lives and said he did not want to continue his habit of remarrying repeatedly," she said. -AP
American widower promotes John Kerry for president in obituary
MADISON, Wisconsin. - Send no flowers to commemorate Jane Buffett's death, her husband asks. Instead, send John Kerry to the White House. In a paid obituary published in Madison's two daily newspapers, Roger Buffett celebrated his wife's years as a mother, homemaker, grandmother and English teacher. But, he said, she was "outraged" by President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq and then expecting "her grandchildren to pay the bills." Other Bush administration policies angered her as well. "She saw John Kerry as the candidate who would most conserve everything she valued," the obituary said. "Jane fought to live long enough to be able to vote this November. To honour her memory, please do everything you can to elect John Kerry." Jane Buffett, 64, died of cancer Sept. 25. The obituary, which called her a "fiery woman," appeared Monday. "Why just try to waste obituaries, saying someone was a super nice person, if they want to have their own reach beyond the grave and give them one last breath of life for what they've been living for?" her husband said