LONDON – Chart-topping British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran on Wednesday announced the cancellation of upcoming concerts in Asia after breaking his arm in a cycling accident.
The 26-year-old has pulled out of shows in Taipei, Osaka, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong, according to a post to his 17.5 million followers on Instagram, alongside a picture of his arm in a cast.
“A visit to my doctors confirmed fractures in my right wrist and left elbow that will leave me unable to perform live concerts for the immediate future,” he wrote.
“I’m waiting to see how the healing progresses before we have to decide on shows beyond that. Please stay tuned for more details.” An earlier post said that he suffered “a bit of a bicycle accident,” which the Daily Mail reported happened in London on Sunday.
The dates were the first leg of a massive Asia tour taking in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and India. He is also scheduled to play in the United Arab Emirates.
The two-time Grammy winner’s latest album “Divide” smashed Spotify records, notching up 57 million listens on the first day of its release in March – nearly twice the previous highest.
Sheeran cut his musical teeth from the age of four at a local church choir, and learned to play the guitar and write songs at a young age.
He honed his talent by busking and playing in bars, and won breakthrough international success with his 2014 love ballad “Thinking Out Loud”, which became the first song on Spotify to be streamed half a billion times.
According to The Straits Times, she said in an interview: “I accidentally got married, I am already a wife.”
She said that she got married in a “very simple” ceremony where she and her husband invited just two witnesses and a priest to their home and signed their names.
TAIPEI – A Taiwanese couple have been indicted over the abuse and deaths of three of their children whose bodies they then buried in hidden locations, in a crime that has shocked the island.
The father, identified by his family name Lee, admitted to beating two sons – aged seven-years-old and 10 months – before they died, prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday (Oct 18).
He was charged with causing injury leading to death while the children’s mother was indicted for abandonment leading to death, both punishable by life imprisonment.
The cause of death of their six-month-old daughter was undetermined.
Lee, 37, denied abusing the baby, prosecutors said.
He and his partner surnamed Chen, 33, escaped murder charges as Lee claimed he “had no idea” his children would die, said Huang Yi-hua, a spokeswoman for the Yunlin prosecutor’s office.
“Lee said he just wanted to teach the children a lesson when they were crying and screaming,” she added.
But the case sparked an emotional public response, with some calling for the death penalty, which can be handed down for serious crimes in Taiwan.
Local media described the couple as “cold-blooded, horrifying parents”.
“Even if they don’t get sentenced to death by a judge, they will go to hell after they die,” read one message left on the comment section on Apple Daily’s website.
“They are animals, they should be shot dead,” read another.
Prosecutors described Lee as unemployed and an alcoholic.
The children died between 2008 and 2013, when the couple were on the run for theft and fraud charges.
They buried their seven-year-old son near a river in central Yunlin county where Lee is from, said prosecutors.
Lee’s father has been indicted for helping to dispose of the body. The remains of the six-month-old girl were buried in the backyard of Lee’s father’s home. The 10-month old was buried in northern Taoyuan.
When authorities finally caught up with the fugitive couple last year and arrested them for theft and fraud, they tried to locate the older son and became suspicious when they could not.
The couple said he had been adopted, but their eldest daughter told police her brother had been beaten to death.
Now aged 12, she is currently in foster care with two younger siblings.
Stomp contributor Aloy was nearby when he noticed the ruckus.
“They were fighting and shouting, and one guy walked away with his head seriously bleeding,” said the Stomp contributor.
Photo: Stomp
“The guy in grey even grabbed a thick tree branch and chased after the bleeding guy,” he added, although that part was not shown in the video Aloy shared with Stomp.
It is unclear what the fight was about.
Photo: Stomp
Stomp has contacted the authorities for more information.
MIAMI – Researchers have uncovered widespread evidence of a link between traditional Chinese herbal remedies and liver cancer across Asia, a study said on Wednesday (Oct 18).
The findings suggest stronger measures are needed to prevent people from consuming chemicals called aristolochic acids (AA), which are derived from the woody vines of the Aristolochia plant family, said the report in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
The acids can be found in some traditional Chinese medicines that are given during childbirth, to prevent parasites and promote healing.
Researchers tested 98 liver tumours that were stored at hospitals in Taiwan, and found that 78 per cent contained mutation patterns that indicated the cancers “were likely due to contact with the chemicals”, said the study.
Since these acids cause “a well-defined mutational signature,” researchers also looked at 89 samples of liver cancer in China, and found that 47 per cent showed a link to this traditional medicine component.
In Vietnam, five out of 26 tumours studied were a match (19 per cent), along with five out of nine from other countries in South-east Asia (56 per cent).
The link to traditional Chinese medicine was far less common in North America (5 per cent of 209 liver cancers studied) and 1.7 per cent of the 230 looked at from Europe.
Taiwan banned in 2003 some herbal preparations using the plants after it was discovered that aristolochic acids could cause kidney failure and urinary tract cancers.
However, there is no outright ban in China or Taiwan, and “only specific plants, rather than any plant and product containing AA or its derivatives, are regulated”, making it hard for consumers to avoid them, said the report.
Researchers found that the prevalence of AA-associated mutations in liver cancers in Taiwan did not drop after the ban was implemented.
This could be because it would take more time for a drop in cancers to be noticeable in the data, as was the case with tobacco-related cancers after smoking was revealed to cause lung tumours.
Or it could be that people continue to be exposed to these acids through other products and herbal mixtures that still contain them.
Singapore Exchange Ltd and Nasdaq Inc announced a pact that will allow firms to tap the capital markets possibly simultaneously under the two exchange operators’ namesake exchanges.
FILE PHOTO: A view of the exterior of the Nasdaq market site in Times Square after the Nasdaq breached the 6,000 mark for the first time ever on Tuesday, in New York City, NY, U.S. April 25, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
REUTERS: Singapore Exchange Ltd and Nasdaq Inc announced a pact on Wednesday (Oct 18) that will allow firms to tap the capital markets possibly simultaneously under the two exchange operators’ namesake exchanges.
The tie-up would help fast-growing Asian companies to list on the SGX and subsequently pursue a Nasdaq listing as they expand globally, SGX Chief Executive Loh Boon Chye said in a statement.
SGX and US-based Nasdaq – which are also in a long-term market technology partnership – are gauging interest among companies that could seek a concurrent or sequential listing on both the SGX and the Nasdaq, the exchange operators said.
(Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)
ABU DHABI: WorldSkills Singapore 2018 will be expanded to include university students and introduce competition areas that are relevant to industries in Singapore such as cybersecurity, SkillsFuture chief executive Ng Cher Pong said on Wednesday (Oct 18).
Mr Ng was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the 44th international WorldSkills competition in Abu Dhabi. Dubbed the “Olympics of Skills”, the biennial competition pits youths around the world in skilled trade areas.
WorldSkills Singapore, a nation-wide skills competition for Singaporean youths, is also held once every two years. Candidates who win the local edition go on to represent Singapore at the international WorldSkills competition.
Mr Ng explained that the 2018 edition in Singapore will feature cybersecurity as it is “clearly a growing industry”.
“We see many companies, Singtel for example, investing large money into this area. The jobs are there, the opportunities are there. We think it is then useful to bring this message upstream to not just to the polytechnic, ITE and university students but also secondary school students, using WorldSkills as the platform,” said Mr Ng, who is leading the Singapore team in Abu Dhabi.
The 21-member strong team is competing in 19 skill areas such as information and network cabling, aircraft maintenance as well as health and social care.
Health and Social Care competitor Fazira Bte Zulkifli during one of her tests which includes role-play with a patient. (Photo: Chan Luo Er)
WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017 has a record high of close to 1,300 competitors from some 60 countries and regions around the world, up from some 1,200 competitors in 2015.
TIME NEEDED TO CHANGE MINDSET OF WHAT SUCCESS MEANS: ONG YE KUNG
Singapore’s Education Minister Ong Ye Kung, who arrived in Abu Dhabi on Monday (Oct 16) on a four-day working visit, also lent his support to the competitors. He is the first Singapore education minister to attend an edition of WorldSkills since the nation started participating in 1995.
Apart from meeting with competitors, Mr Ong also took part in a panel discussion on how youths can cope with change in a disruptive economy.
The discussion took place at the closing plenary session of the WorldSkills Conference, which was held in conjunction with the competition on Tuesday (Oct 17).
WorldSkills competitors in action. (Photo: Chan Luo Er)
He said time is needed to change the mindsets of parents and society to redefine what success means, a challenge faced across the world. But Mr Ong is confident that this will change as the current generation of youths grow up.
“Within our system, we have to open up pathways, spaces for them to explore what they don’t know yet and, hopefully in time, they discover their passion,” said Mr Ong.
Panellists also spoke about the need to have education systems that are in line with the skills the labour market requires, and to continually engage youths so their aspirations are heard.
The six-member panel included the UAE Education Minister Hussain Ibrahim Al Hammadi and Russia’s Deputy Minister of Education and Science, Lyudmila Ogorodova.
PERCEPTION PERSISTS THAT VOCATIONAL DEGREE NOT AS PRESTIGIOUS
Some countries at the competition stressed the need for more time to change society’s perceptions on skilled trades.
Switzerland, perhaps the most successful country when it comes to promoting skilled trades, has trade organisations, government and companies working hand-in-hand to train their youths, of whom two-thirds enter vocational education. But according to the official delegate for SwissSkills, Ms Christine Davatz, there still remains a perception that the vocational route is not as prestigious as obtaining a degree.
“It’s always in the head that education is school and vocational education and training is not school, it’s working. This we have to convince parents and to show the careers you can do,” said Ms Davatz.
For Hong Kong, the chairman of the territory’s Vocational Training Council Clement Chen said while the pay gap between vocational education graduates and degree holders are narrowing for certain trades, a major challenge is getting companies to offer internships so students can clock enough practical experience before they graduate from vocational school.
“In Hong Kong, most companies are SMEs, so they (are) rather reluctant to hire inexperienced youngsters. They say they offer internships but at the end of day, the students go to the big international companies. In this part, I think the government can play some role to offer some incentives so small companies are willing to invest in young people,” said Dr Chen.
Mr Ng likened the process of changing mindsets to steering the rudder of a big ship.
“You need many stakeholders to be turning the steering wheel in a certain direction … we are starting to see shifts, it’s still uneven but we are starting to see some of the gaps being narrowed. The important part is not just employers recognising the importance of skills but society in general. Consumers for example, need to value skills and be prepared to pay more for skills,” said Mr Ng.
The four-day WorldSkills competition started on Oct 15. Results will be announced on Thursday.
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