SINGAPORE – The Republic of Singapore Navy’s (RSN) has launched its third Independence-class Littoral Mission Vessel (LMV), RSS Unity.
Senior Minister of State for Defence Ong Ye Kung officiated at the launching ceremony at the Singapore Technologies Marine’s…
Source link
Singapore Navy launches third Littoral Mission Vessel
Singapore Environment Council head Edwin Seah suspended indefinitely from duty
Mr Edwin Seah was notified of the decision via a telephone call on Thursday morning.
Source link
Stevie Wonder to lead Prince fans in final sendoff
Nearly six months after Prince’s sudden death, his fans will have their chance Thursday to mourn the pop icon at a star-filled tribute concert in his native Minnesota.
Stevie Wonder will lead the sold-out show at a 20,000-capacity arena, which will mark the first – and, family members say, only – official public event to remember The Purple One.
Organizers invited fans to show up several hours ahead of time for a free outdoor party near the venue to celebrate Prince, the prolific if eccentric musical genius who was the biggest celebrity to live in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The concert comes a week after Prince’s estate opened up Paisley Park – the reclusive star’s suburban headquarters that was usually sealed to visitors – ahead of the start of regular tours.
Purple tribute to Prince
Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source:
Prince, outwardly a model of health, died accidentally at age 57 from an overdose of powerful painkillers. His family quickly cremated his body and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, his religious group late in life, held a memorial service, but both events were private.
Wonder, the soul legend whom Prince had cited as a role model despite their different styles, and pop star Christina Aguilera will headline the concert which begins at 7:30 pm (0030 GMT Friday).
Performers with personal connections to the late artist will include “Queen of Funk” Chaka Khan, whose cover of Prince’s “I Feel For You” revived her career, and Morris Day, who grew up with Prince in Minneapolis and played his rival in the classic 1984 film “Purple Rain.”
Newly announced to the lineup is Prince’s ex-wife Mayte Garcia. A dancer and choreographer, Garcia was also the mother of Prince’s son Ahmir who died a week after his birth in 1996 from a rare disorder.
Ana Moura, one of the leading singers of Portugal’s melancholic fado music, has also confirmed her attendance. She found a new global audience after Prince, a fan of fado who is famous for taking on proteges, championed her music.
Music legend Prince dead at 57
Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source:
Reuters, AFP
Other artists will range from 23-year-old breakaway pop sensation Tori Kelly to veteran funk singer Anita Baker and R&B producer Bilal.
Two of the backup bands from Prince’s long career, the New Power Generation and 3rdEyeGirl, will perform with the guest artists.
However, several acts closely associated with Prince are not performing, including drummer and singer Sheila E, who is scheduled to play Thursday night in suburban New York with Brazilian great Sergio Mendes.
Plans for the concert had long been in flux with Prince’s sister, Tyka Nelson, initially saying the tribute would take place not at the XCel Energy Center in St. Paul, where it is being held, but at a much larger venue – the new 66,200-capacity US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
Tickets for the tribute start at the accessible price of US$20 (S$28) as organizers hoped to draw local fans of Prince, whose infectious brand of funk became known as the Minneapolis Sound.
But the concert and Paisley Park tours are expected to help fill the coffers for Prince’s estate, whose finances have been in uncertain shape since his sudden death.
Billboard magazine reported that advisers to Prince’s estate were in talks to sell Paisley Park’s vast vault of unreleased music for up to US$35 million.
Prince’s siblings turned over management of his estate to a private administrator but have faced an onslaught of claims, some of them far-fetched, by people who say they are heirs to Prince’s fortune.
Image:
Publication Date:
Thursday, October 13, 2016 – 14:18
Send to mobile app:
Source:
Hermes ID:
2 665 141
Hermes ID String:
SP_PRINCESTEVIE
Story Type:
Others
AsiaOne on air: Oktoberfest, a concert and street party to check out this weekend
If you’re a beer-lover, concert-goer or street party fan, then there’s something for each of you this weekend. Here are our Party Girl recommendations:
Beer-lovers! Start this weekend off at Oktoberfest Asia on a bigger scale at a new location in Bugis.
Enjoy craft beer, food, music, and dancing the German way from tonight till Saturday in a fully air-conditioned festival-styled marquee at the open field next to Tan Quee Lan Street that is bordered by North Bridge Road and Rochor Road.
Tickets are $90 for Friday and Saturday where you will get a souvenir mug and free flow of beer from 6pm to 12.30am.
Concert-goers! There’s one this Saturday with Morrissey in town performing at the Marina Barrage from 8pm.
Tickets are $128 if you buy it on the day itself.
Street-party fans! Koi Izakaya on Haji Lane is having a “100 per cent certified tasty boogie, disco, soul and house” music evening from 7pm on Saturday.
This place has an array of snazzy cocktails to sample and the vibe is always energetic.
If you don’t know, now you know.
To catch the Party Girl, listen to her on OneFM‘s #1 Breakfast Show with Glenn Ong and The Flying Dutchman on Thursday mornings.
Find out what she gets up to on AsiaOne’s social media! Follow @sphasiaone on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and @RasbiSG on Snapchat.
spanaech@sph.com.sg
Image:
Publication Date:
Thursday, October 13, 2016 – 15:08
Send to mobile app:
Source:
Rotator Headline:
Oktoberfest, a concert and street party to check out this weekend
Rotator Image:
Video Media:
Other Video Media
Story Type:
Original Story
Robbery victim Kardashian takes back control – offline
LOS ANGELES – After a traumatic robbery which saw her tied up at gunpoint, no one expected US reality star and social media queen Kim Kardashian to spring immediately back into the limelight.
But the normally prolific tweeter hasn’t posted online since the October 3 incident in Paris, prompting speculation that the hiatus is part of a careful strategy to stage-manage her recovery from the horrifying ordeal.
The multimillionaire, who was in the French capital for Paris Fashion Week, was locked in a bathroom while five robbers posing as police stole a US$4.5 million ring (S$6 million) and a case of jewelry valued at US$5.6 million.
Kardashian, 35, flew back to Los Angeles to be comforted by family, halting her part in filming for reality show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” according to entertainment cable station E!.
A fixture of celebrity news for more than a decade, the star earns an estimated US$1 million a month from her social media engagement, mainly through product endorsements and promotion of her own brand.
But her 84 million followers on Instagram and 48 million on Twitter, many of whom have been asking questions about her security arrangements, have been denied her version of events.
Meanwhile Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner has been marshalling specialist firms to discuss better security for Kim and her other daughters, Kourtney, 37, Khloe, 32, Kendall, 20, and Kylie, 19, according to gossip website TMZ.
Observers say Jenner has likely also taken the opportunity to sit down with the clan and draw up a meticulous plan for Kim’s comeback, including the timing of her return to social media.
“They wouldn’t be Kardashians if they didn’t use this to their advantage,” Rob Shuter, a former Hollywood publicist for Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson and others, who now runs NaughtyGossip.com, told AFP.
“So they are certainly sitting down with their people and Kris Jenner is a master strategist herself.” Shuter said several television networks had been clamoring to secure an exclusive interview with Kim.
“E! and NBC are owned by the same company so I would guess she’ll get a prime-time special on NBC,” he said, adding that Kardashian was an expert in generating anticipation among her fans and would make a “very dramatic” return to social media.
“It will probably be a picture of a shadow or a poem or inspirational quote by Maya Angelou. Then there will be a countdown to the big sit-down interview,” he told AFP.
Shuter says Kardashian’s reported US$1 million a month earnings from social media is likely a “conservative” estimate, meaning that she will not be able to stay offline for long.
Italian artist mocks Kim Kardashian in her nude shots for magazine
Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source:
Lollipop, Kim Kardashain’s Instagram
“I don’t think anyone is going to sue her after such a horrible incident, but technically she is probably in violation of a contract as we speak,” he told AFP.
“Because I think in those contracts that I’ve seen, she has to tweet or post x times a week. Even if she is not directly promoting the product, just having her face and her name out there… all that helps.”
E! quoted an unnamed insider as saying Kardashian was receiving “some professional counseling” while Khloe Kardashian told Ellen DeGeneres on Tuesday her sister was “not doing that well.”
“I mean, it’s incredibly traumatic what happened to her, but our family is super close and great and we’ll get through it together, and we do appreciate all of your guys’ love and support and it will take time,” Khloe said.
It was the first time a family member had broken their silence since the robbery, which Khloe said was a “wake-up call” that had given them a new perspective on security and online privacy.
With the Kardashians beginning to open up, Kim and her family have demonstrated that they will brook no speculation that she overplayed the incident for her own gain.
The mother-of-two and wife of rap superstar Kanye West filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Mediatakeout.com for alleging in a series of articles that she faked having her jewelry robbed to cheat her insurers out of millions.
AFP reached out to Kardashian’s representatives but there was no immediate response.
Image:
Publication Date:
Thursday, October 13, 2016 – 13:52
Keywords:
Send to mobile app:
Source:
Hermes ID:
2 665 107
Hermes ID String:
SP_KIMKCONTROL
Story Type:
Others
Singapore man posts online ad to sell Pokemon plushies to save his marriage
When you need help to save a relationship, you can trust the Internet to come to the rescue.
This was especially so in the case of a Singaporean man who wanted to surprise his wife, who is a fan of the popular location-based augmented reality game Pokemon Go.
In an ad post on online marketplace Carousell on Oct 12, the seller only known as ‘featherlit’, wrote how he wanted to buy cuddly plushies of the Pokemon called Snorlax as a surprise for his wife, who had gushed about how “cute and dumb” it looked.
Without her knowledge, he bought three of the plushies hastily online without caring much about the price. When they arrived, he received two rude shocks:
First, they turned out to be life-sized instead of the “mini ones” that he expected to fit snugly on their computer table or wall shelves. Each of the Snorlax plushies he received turned out to be 1.5m tall.
Second, his wife flew into a rage as there was no more living space in their apartment after they had to plonk the giant Snorlax plushies in their living confines.
He said he was forced to put them up for sale after his wife threatened “to move back to her mom’s home”.
His rib-tickling post was accompanied with photos showing the soft toys taking up a big chunk of their living space in an apartment presumably in Punggol, as it was named as his location.
Sounding like a man in great despair, he implored: “Please please…guys…buy them away before she divorces me…I will be glad to transport it to your place.”
His desperate sales pitch generated laughs among netizens who also ‘sympathised’ with his problem.
Said one netizen Ah Bui: “In order to salvage your (sic) marriage and your (sic) willingness to let go at an (sic) unacceptable price, I sacrifice myself and my room for u. Bro.”
Said another, thriftshopthrill: “If nobody is buying from you and your wife is one foot out of the door, I am willing to give up half my room space for one of these.”
Without revealing how much he had paid for each, he only let on that the plushies “cost an arm and leg”. And his asking price for each Snorlax? $250.
The happy conclusion: All three plushies were snapped up, said the man in an update to the post.
He wrote: “Hey guys, snorlax has been sold…thanks everyone!”
chenj@sph.com.sg
Read also: Stampede as players rush to catch Snorlax
Pokemon Go health hazards
Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source:
The Straits Times, Shutterstock.com, pixabay
329291
Photo GalleryArtist reimagines Pokemons as humans
Source:
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
Image:
Publication Date:
Thursday, October 13, 2016 – 13:02
Keywords:
Send to mobile app:
Source:
Rotator Image:
Story Type:
Rewritten Story
Man parts with giant Pokemon plushies after wife complains about their size
When you need help to save a relationship, you can trust the Internet to come to the rescue.
This was especially so in the case of a Singaporean man who wanted to surprise his wife, who is a fan of the popular location-based augmented reality game Pokemon Go.
In an ad post on online marketplace Carousell on Oct 12, the seller only known as ‘featherlit’, wrote how he wanted to buy cuddly plushies of the Pokemon called Snorlax as a surprise for his wife, who had gushed about how “cute and dumb” it looked.
Without her knowledge, he bought three of the plushies hastily online without caring much about the price. When they arrived, he received two rude shocks:
First, they turned out to be life-sized instead of the “mini ones” that he expected to fit snugly on their computer table or wall shelves. Each of the Snorelax plushies he received turned out to be 1.5m tall.
Second, his wife flew into a rage as there was no more living space in their apartment after they had to plonk the giant Snorelax plushies in their living confines.
He said he was forced to put them up for sale after his wife threatened “to move back to her mom’s home”.
His rib-tickling post was accompanied with photos showing the soft toys taking up a big chunk of their living space in an apartment presumably in Punggol, as it was named as his location.
Sounding like a man in great despair, he implored: “Please please…guys…buy them away before she divorces me…I will be glad to transport it to your place.”
His desperate sales pitch generated laughs among netizens who also ‘sympathised’ with his problem.
Said one netizen Ah Bui: “In order to salvage your (sic) marriage and your (sic) willingness to let go at an (sic) unacceptable price, I sacrifice myself and my room for u. Bro.”
Said another, thriftshopthrill: “If nobody is buying from you and your wife is one foot out of the door, I am willing to give up half my room space for one of these.”
Without revealing how much he had paid for each, he only let on that the plushies “cost an arm and leg”. And his asking price for each Snorlax? $250.
The happy conclusion: All three plushies were snapped up, said the man in an update to the post.
He wrote: “Hey guys, snorlax has been sold…thanks everyone!”
chenj@sph.com.sg
Read also: Stampede as players rush to catch Snorlax
Pokemon Go health hazards
Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source:
The Straits Times, Shutterstock.com, pixabay
329291
Photo GalleryArtist reimagines Pokemons as humans
Source:
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
-
<!–
Image:
Publication Date:
Thursday, October 13, 2016 – 13:02
Keywords:
Send to mobile app:
Source:
Rotator Image:
Story Type:
Rewritten Story
New national framework for HR professionals aims to raise standards
The National Human Resource Professional Certification Framework will be piloted from Oct 24, and is expected to be fully launched in the middle of next year.
Source link
HDB annual deficit declines to S$1.64b as fewer new flats built
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) incurred a deficit of S$1.64 billion in FY2015/16, down from S$2.02 billion the previous year.
Source link
Temple wedding bells are ringing
When Mr Alan Lim and Ms Teo Yen Ting showed up at Kong Hock Keng Temple last June decked out in red robes and golden headdresses, they drew curious looks from devotees, not least because they looked like they had just stepped out of China’s Han Dynasty.
The couple were at the Chinese temple in Telok Blangah to tie the knot in front of Taoist deities such as the Jade Emperor, Monkey King and Nezha the Third Lotus Prince.
“I used to help out at this temple for many years. We wanted to get married at some place special, and our faith is important,” said Mr Lim, 26, who works as a career coach.
The Taoists met each other during a Taoist Federation (Singapore) youth committee conference in 2013. They share an interest in Chinese history and culture – something they wanted to commemorate on their special day.
Clad in traditional costumes bought from e-commerce site Taobao, Mr Lim and Ms Teo, 23, a part-time tutor, offered fruits and joss sticks to the deities. Their solemniser, Master Adrian Long, 50, then recited religious scriptures before pronouncing them man and wife.
They are among a number of young couples now holding their matrimonial ceremonies at Chinese temples. About 20 to 30 do so each year, said Master Long, who is a deputy registrar of marriages and a special committee member with the Taoist Federation (Singapore). “Some met at these temples, while others simply want to seek blessings for a blissful marriage,” he said. “Some also pray to their ancestors whose ashes are in the same temple.”
The Singapore Buddhist Federation (SBF) has noticed more couples getting hitched at Buddhist venues, said the federation’s president, Venerable Seck Kwang Phing, 63. He is also a solemniser.
While there were 10 to 20 weddings five years ago, there are now at least 100 in temples or at Buddhist institutions each year, he said. They are usually held at the SBF building in Geylang or Bishan’s Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery.
“I usually remind the bride and groom to be a good couple according to the Buddhist scriptures. For example, husband and wife must treat each other equally,” said Venerable Seck. Depending on the couple’s preference, the solemnisation ceremony is accompanied by the chanting of sutra and offerings to Shakyamuni Buddha.
“To do good, the couple can also offer lunch, robes or any daily necessities to the monks.”
People of other faiths often get married at their places of worship, such as churches, mosques and Hindu temples.
The Sultan Mosque in Kampong Glam, for instance, hosts about three to four weddings each week. These are officiated by a kadi, who solemnises Muslim marriages.
Mosque manager Zainal Abidin Omar, 47, said more couples have been getting married at the venue since it was restored a year ago.
“Youngsters like to have their weddings here because they want to get blessings from God,” he said, adding that they can have their reception at the nearby restaurants.
For some, the venue represents both faith and fate. Software engineer Mah Chun How, 34, and accounts assistant Kang Say See, 29, got married at the Yueh Hai Ching Temple in Raffles Place last month.
Before they met in 2014, they had visited the temple to ask Yue Lao, the elder under the moon deity believed to be a matchmaker, for a partner. “We got to know each other not too long after,” said Mr Mah.
“The temple is very special to us. We believe Yue Lao brought us together.”
This article was first published on Oct 13, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
Image:
Publication Date:
Thursday, October 13, 2016 – 16:00
Send to mobile app:
Source:
Story Type:
Others
