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SINGAPORE – Standalone street stalls in Chinatown Street Market will receive better heat insulation soon.
This initiative is one of the refurbishment measures that will descend upon the heritage attraction from May 15 this year.
All stalls within the street market area of Pagoda, Sago, Smith and Trengganu Streets, will also incorporate enhanced fire safety features.
This includes water sprinklers and fire-rated shutters. Rain curtains will also be installed on the units in front of shophouses.
During the refurbishment, temporary hoarding around Chinatown Street Market will have directional signs to various attractions and businesses, while fans and lightings will be installed along the pathways of affected shophouses.
Refurbishment works will take place in phases to minimise disruption, especially during the festive periods of Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival.
The project is targeted to conclude by the end of 2018.
debwong@sph.com.sg
Injured Hong Kong actor Andy Lau has finally returned home, ending a 53-day stay in the hospital after he was thrown off a horse and stomped on while filming a commercial in January.
The 55-year-old told fans the good news via his official blog on the morning of March 10.
He recalled that he had spent an entire day undergoing tests, and was listening to the doctor explain the results when he was told that he could be discharged.
“I almost jumped up to hug the doctor, it’s a pity that I wasn’t able to,” he wrote.
Read also: Andy Lau sends emoji festive greeting to family from hospital bed
Posted with a photo of him wearing a surgical mask, Lau’s entry also revealed that his recovery was on track.
He wrote: “(The) vertebral fractures and injuries to my sciatic nerve, muscles and Achilles tendon are all recovering slowly. Everything is starting to clear up!”
Read also: Andy Lau tried to keep accident secret so wife wouldn’t worry
Lau also urged fans not to worry, and thanked the media for giving him the space and time to rest and recover. “I can see and feel the media’s support for me,” he wrote.
Before signing off his message, Lau again comforted worried fans by writing: “I’ve read every message, every blessing and every encouragement, all of which are my remedies. Trust me! I will be able to stand up very soon!”
Read also: Andy Lau’s medical bills estimated to reach $550,000
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ljessica@sph.com.sg
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PARIS-The number and proportion of people in China over 80 are growing, but their mental and physical fitness appear to be declining, scientists reported Friday.
Comparing medical data and surveys from 1998 and 2008 of nearly 20,000 people aged 80 to 105, researchers found that the ranks of China’s ‘oldest old’ had expanded since the turn of the century.
For octogenarians and nonagenarians, mortality fell by nearly one per cent over that decade, they reported in the medical journal The Lancet.
For the 100-and-up club, death rates dropped nearly three per cent.
The ‘over 80′ cohort is by far the fastest rising age group in the country.
At the same time, however, physical and cognitive function showed a small but significant deterioration.
Simple tasks – standing up from a chair, for example, or picking up a book off the floor – were harder to perform, while scores on memory tests slumped.
“This has clear policy implications for health systems and social care, not only in China but also globally,” the authors concluded.
“Many more state-subsidized public and private programs and enterprises are urgently needed to provide services to meet the needs of the rapidly growing elderly population,” especially those over 80.
Paradoxically, the 2008 respondents reported less difficulty in performing daily activities – such as eating, dressing and bathing – than those born a decade earlier.
The scientists, led by Yi Zeng, a professor at the National School of Development at Beijing University, chalked this up to improved amenities and tools, but said more research was needed.
The findings illustrate the tug-of-war between two approaches to assessing ageing populations, whether in rich or developing countries.
One emphasizes the “benefits of success”: people living longer with lower levels of disability because of healthier lifestyles, better healthcare and higher incomes.
By contrast, the “cost of success” theory suggests that living longer might mean that individuals survive life-threatening illnesses but live with chronic health problems as a result.
The new study shows that both theories are at play, and that governments will need to adapt under either scenario.
“The findings provide a clear warning message to societies with ageing populations,” Yi said in a statement.
“Although lifespans are increasing, other elements of health are both improving and deteriorating, leading to a variety of health and social needs in the oldest-old population.”
Whether it means providing long-term care for the disabled, or work and social opportunities for healthy octogenarians, adjusting to an ageing population will require planning and investment, the researchers concluded.
The Ministry of National Development (MND) yesterday flagged several issues with financial statements submitted by the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC).
The town council’s external auditor had raised several instances where the AHTC’s statements for the 2015 financial year failed to comply with the Town Councils Act and Town Councils Financial Rules, the ministry said in a statement.
It did not disclose what these instances of non-compliance were, but noted the auditor had similarly flagged the AHTC’s financial statements for its 2014 financial year.
The MND has sought clarifications from the Workers’ Party-run AHTC and will present the finalised financial statements to Parliament upon receiving them, it said.
The ministry’s statement comes a day before Parliament debates changes to the Town Councils Act that will give the Government greater oversight over town councils.
The ministry also noted that this is the fifth year that the AHTC’s external auditor has qualified its financial statements.
The AHTC submitted the statements on Feb 24, and sent in accompanying documents the subsequent week – six months after the deadline on Aug 31, said the MND.
It was the fourth time the statements were late since the Workers’ Party won Aljunied GRC in May 2011.
The AHTC submitted statements for the 2014 financial year on time.
The ministry also laid out a brief timeline related to the submissions.
On Aug 12 last year, the AHTC wrote to the MND requesting an extension for the submissions, citing “outstanding issues to resolve with its auditor”, the ministry said.
Over the next few months, the MND repeatedly asked the AHTC for a timeframe of when its audit for financial year 2015 would be completed.
But the AHTC could not give a firm reply on the timeline, nor the exact reasons for the delays, it said.
Responding in a statement yesterday, AHTC chairman Pritam Singh said the town council has explained the reasons for its late submission to the ministry.
He also said the AHTC recently called a public tender for an internal auditor, “to ensure compliance with the Town Councils Act and the Town Councils Financial Rules on an ongoing basis”.
However, the town council did not receive any submissions from accounting firms in Singapore.
Mr Singh said it will call a second tender and put its statements for FY2015 on its website after it has addressed the issues raised by the MND.
asyiqins@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on March 10, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
SINGAPORE: From the presence of hula hoops to a touch of circus acrobatics, the lineup for this year’s M1 Contact Contemporary Dance Festival offers just enough twists for aficionados of dance.
The biggest twist, however, is a change in dates: Beginning this year, the annual festival organised by THE Dance Company has moved up the arts calendar and will be held from June 2 to July 7. Previously, it took place in November and December.
Now on its eighth edition, M1 Contact will feature 27 works across five productions, and all of them will be held at The Esplanade, a longtime collaborator. Dance classes and workshops, meanwhile, will be held at Goodman Arts Centre.
For the first time, the festival will also be presenting a free public show at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre called Dance At Dusk. Over the festival’s first weekend, there will be nightly performances by members of THE’s first and second companies as well as Swiss duo Company Ici’bas, who includes a circus-theatre trained performer. But these won’t just be your run of the mill dance shows – the performers will also be explaining their moves along the way.
“The Esplanade Outdoor Theatre is more commonly associated with music events enjoyed by a wide range of audiences. We hope to introduce contemporary dance with the same dose of fun and creative learning insights, especially to those whom haven’t had access to or experienced dance,” said THE artistic director Kuik Swee Boon.
A free show combined with dancers explaining some of the pieces will also be instrumental in helping new audiences engage with and “decode” contemporary dance, added Faith Tan, lead dance producer at The Esplanade.
Dance critic Stephanie Burridge’s Mist will feature THE Dance Company alumni Yarra Ileto and violinist Kailin Yong. (Photo: Bernie Ng)
Festival organisers also hope that moving up the event’s dates to June from the regularly jampacked and saturated year-end arts calendar would further build audiences for M1 Contact.
Other performances this year includes a new festival commission for emerging Singaporean dancer-choreographer Germaine Cheng, who is creating a 25-minute work based on the idea of the Rube Goldberg machine, a cause-and-effect system of devices.
Respected Singapore dance critic Stephanie Burridge is presenting a piece called Mist. It is in collaboration with THE alum Yarra Ileto and will also feature a live musical performance by violinist Kailin Yong. Meanwhile, American dancer Gabrielle Revlock, who is known for using a hula hoop in her performances, will be presenting a piece called Unstructured Time.
Young non-professional dancers will also be taking part in a developmental showcase called Off Stage, which will feature works-in-progress. Among them is stage actor Thomas Pang, a familiar face in the theatre scene, who will be directing and performing in a piece called You/Me? with dancer Lim Pei Ern.
Finally, the festival will also feature a new collaboration between THE Dance Company and New Zealand visual dance theatre group Muscle Mouth. Titled Borderline, it will feature two works by Kuik and Muscle Mouth’s Ross McCormack.
The H5N1 bird flu outbreak in a village in the Malaysian state of Kelantan has not affected Singapore’s poultry and egg supply, said the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) yesterday.
The outbreak was reported on Wednesday.
The AVA said that Singapore permits poultry and eggs from disease-free zones in five Malaysian states only – Johor, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor and Perak.
The Star newspaper reported that Kelantan has taken measures such as setting up roadblocks, which state agriculture committee chairman Che Abdullah Mat said were set up within a 1km radius of Kampung Pulau Tebu.
The infection was reportedly limited to the village, where 15 chickens recently died.
Datuk Abdullah said: “The veterinary services department has since culled 170 avians, including chickens, ducks and birds, and destroyed 100 eggs in the affected village.”
He added that the culling took place on Monday and three positive cases were recorded in the one village, but no farms were affected.
The AVA said that it has stepped up surveillance and inspections at the points where poultry enters Singapore, as of yesterday morning.
The number of inspecting officers has been increased from two to three.
Poultry typically undergoes documentary and physical checks at the Singapore border.
The AVA also said that it has told Singapore’s three poultry farms to step up their security measures.
Such measures include discouraging non-essential visitors to the farms and not allowing other birds and eggs inside.
The AVA will also increase its monitoring of the Republic’s 14 poultry slaughterhouses.
Under normal circumstances, the AVA inspects about a third of the slaughterhouses every day, but it will now inspect all of them daily.
At the slaughterhouses, the poultry is inspected and samples are taken to ensure compliance with Singapore’s animal health and food safety requirements and standards.
The AVA tests these samples for diseases and threats, such as bird flu and chemicals.
According to a press statement, it will increase its monitoring of free-roaming chickens, although no further details were given.
These measures will remain in place while the AVA continues to monitor the situation.
Singapore imports 35 per cent of its chickens, 93 per cent of its ducks and 76 per cent of its eggs from Malaysia.
The H5N1 virus has also been detected in Cambodia in recent weeks, but The Straits Times understands that Cambodia is not approved for poultry export to Singapore.
josehong@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on March 10, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) will reconfigure and expand the road network in the Safti training area to provide a continuous space of urban and forested environments for troops to train in more realistic settings.
Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen, who visited an SAF rafting exercise in the western part of Singapore on Tuesday, said changes to the road network are part of the army’s efforts to meet future challenges by “maximising the potential of its training areas”.
During the exercise, which began on Feb 27 and ends today, Dr Ng witnessed the army’s tactical mobility capabilities as Belrex Protected Combat Support Vehicles were transported across a simulated river using the Mobility 3rd Generation (M3G) Raft.
“The idea is to have our battalions be able to mimic the terrain that they would (operate in) during conventional operations, move from urban terrain to natural terrain such as this, where there are axes to be crossed, and river bodies or water bodies to traverse.
“That will take us a good part of a decade, but it is a significant investment and the general idea is that we want to maximise the resources given to us,” he was quoted as saying in a statement released yesterday by the Ministry of Defence (Mindef).
Dr Ng had announced last Friday in Parliament during a debate on Mindef’s budget that a new training area – dubbed Safti City – would be built in the training area for soldiers to train in realistic settings.
The 88ha area – the size of Bishan town – will have a sector packed with shophouse clusters, high-rise interconnected buildings, low-rise residences, basement carparks, a bus interchange and an MRT station with multiple exits.
Another sector near the Poyan Reservoir will house a petrochemicals complex, warehouses, container parks and industrial buildings.
Separately, new grounds for infantry and armoured vehicle drills will be developed in three existing training areas of Pasir Laba, Ama Keng and the Murai Urban Training Facility.
The three areas will also feature simulated training scenarios called Instrumented Battle Circuits.
Dr Ng had described Safti City as part of Singapore’s efforts to build world-class training facilities here and “guard against over-dependence on overseas training grounds”.
The Straits Times understands that the road network is for military use only and that the reconfiguration is part of the Safti training area’s revamp, which will cost about $900 million and take 10 years to complete.
During his visit on Tuesday, Dr Ng also piloted the M3G raft, and talked to active personnel and operationally ready national servicemen (NSmen) taking part in the exercise, which involved about 1,100 personnel from the Headquarters Singapore Combat Engineers and 35th Battalion Singapore Combat Engineers.
Besides underscoring the important role that combat engineers play as a vital support arm of the army, Dr Ng – accompanied by Chief of Army Melvyn Ong and senior SAF commanders – also spoke about the value of the exercise in honing the army’s operational capabilities and readiness.
He said: “During National Day, many Singaporeans will be familiar with our M3G rafts in Marina Bay for the 21-gun (presidential) salute.
“But beyond the ceremonial functions, the real function of the M3G rafts is to allow the SAF to cross water bodies… I think it is a great boost for the SAF to be able to test these capabilities, and use these rafts for what they were meant for.”
Mindef said “the training transformation efforts will allow the army to hone its ability to operate continuously across different terrains, and conduct realistic training to meet the needs of the next-gen army”.
Dr Ng also applauded the professionalism displayed by the NSmen in the exercise, adding that a strong and effective SAF is made possible only by the commitment of the NSmen.
“We are full of confidence (in what) they have done. They understand the challenge, and they are very competent,” he added.
kianbeng@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on March 10, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is taking false SkillsFuture Credit claims very seriously and will take legal action against those who do not return the money.
Parliamentary Secretary for Education Low Yen Ling said yesterday: “We will leave no stone unturned as we take considered measures to review all processes to ensure a very robust system to deter abuses and also (the) making of false claims.”
Recently, roughly 4,400 people were found to have claimed about $2.2 million without attending the courses that they said they had.
Statutory board SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), which comes under her ministry, issued letters last month and this month to those involved, to demand that the money be returned within 30 days.
As some of them have until April to comply, it is too early to look at the amount recovered, Ms Low said.
“SSG is tracking the recovery of monies closely, and will not hesitate to take necessary actions, including legal measures, against those who fail to return the monies,” she said, in her reply to Mr Zainal Sapari (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC).
The SkillsFuture Credit scheme gives $500 in credits to Singaporeans aged 25 and older to pay for training courses.
Either individuals or training providers can make the claim for the training fees from the SSG.
All the 4,400 individuals named the same course when they made their false claims.
Ms Low said that investigations showed they did not conspire with the training provider.
Under the law, people who give false information to SSG can be fined up to $10,000, jailed for up to 12 months or given both punishments.
To prevent further abuse, SSG is conducting more checks and audits on training providers and claims by individuals, she said.
Those being audited have to submit documents such as attendance lists, course enrolment records or proof of payment.
A committee is reviewing how training-related claims and disbursements are processed.
While the SSG strengthens its enforcement, it will also ensure that the system continues to be user-friendly, as most people “are responsible users of the SkillsFuture system”, Ms Low said.
joseow@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on March 10, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
Four key amendments to Singapore’s laws were tabled in the House yesterday to keep up with cybercrime’s changing and increasingly transnational nature.
The Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity (Amendment) Bill seeks to criminalise the act of dealing and trading in personal information, such as credit card details for nefarious purposes, even though the trader may not have hacked into computers to obtain it.
The buying and selling of hacking tools, such as malware and port scanners from online marketplaces, will be an offence if the intention is criminal, said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in a statement.
If the amendments are passed, it will also criminalise offences under the existing Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act which are committed abroad, against an overseas computer.
“This amendment makes this an offence… if the act causes or creates a significant risk of serious harm in Singapore,” said MHA.
Serious harm includes illness, injury or death, and disruptions to essential services, national security and Singapore’s foreign relations.
Essential services include energy, water, finance, government, healthcare, information communication and transportation.
Examples of offences include releasing to the public people’s bank account details, hospital patients’ medical records or confidential government documents.
A new Section 11A also proposes to allow, among other things, multiple unauthorised access to one computer, for a period of 12 months or less, to be combined under a single charge.
A perpetrator may do this to prepare for a cyber attack on the system.
Combining the multiple acts into a single criminal charge will allow for damage caused to be aggregated, so that a heavier penalty under a specified section can be imposed.
The maximum penalty under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act varies, depending on the crime, from a $5,000 fine and two years’ jail, to a $100,000 fine and 20 years’ jail.
The Act was last amended in 2013 – when it was renamed from the previous Computer Misuse Act – to grant the Government enhanced powers to counter cyber threats against Singapore’s national security and essential services.
There is currently no overarching cyber security law in Singapore to tackle cyber threats.
But a new Cybersecurity Act will be introduced in the middle of this year, after public consultations to plug any existing legislative gaps.
itham@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on March 10, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
