According to the Council of Private Education’s Graduate Employment Survey of the nine largest PEIs in Singapore, the employment outcome of fresh graduates from PEIs is much lower than the outcome of graduates from autonomous universities.
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MOE, CPE to study measures to improve quality of private education
SCCCI will play key role in strengthening Singapore’s partnership with China: PM Lee
Speaking at the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Industry’s 110th anniversary dinner, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says the Chinese Chamber’s historic roots in helping immigrants from China settle in Singapore has helped build networks with China, Singapore’s largest trading partner.
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'It's the failures that make or break you': Paralympic stars Theresa Goh and Yip Pin Xiu get candid
Paralympic medallists Theresa Goh and Yip Pin Xiu spoke to Channel NewsAsia about how participating in sports changed their lives and the obstacles they’ve had to overcome.
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SPH volunteers take seniors shopping and eating at The Seletar Mall
Singapore – Some 40 less privileged seniors from Community Network Senior Services (COMNET) of Ang Mo Kio Family Service Centre (AMK FSC) were treated to lunch and shopping at The Seletar Mall, a retail mall owned by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) on Friday (Sept 23).
The elderly folks were accompanied by about 15 SPH staff volunteers for a specially arranged lunch at Bali Thai, and each of them was given a $20 mall voucher for their shopping.
The COMNET, which began as a Befriending Service in 2007, aims to support vulnerable and low-income seniors to live independently and actively in the community, and empower them to seek life satisfaction with the support of community resources.
COMNET operates four Senior Activity Centres (SACs) in Ang Mo Kio, Sin Ming and Sengkang, where they engage seniors in various activities such as morning exercises, games, health and wellness programs, as well as art and craft sessions.
This charity outing was organised by the SPH Staff Volunteers Club and supported by The Seletar Mall.
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12 things you might not know you could be punished for in Singapore
SINGAPORE – Entered Changi Airport’s transit area? You’d better be getting on a plane, because misusing your boarding pass could get you in trouble with the law.
The police arrested a man and a woman in September 2016, who are believed to have entered the transit area on Sept 16 to purchase Apple’s newly released iPhone 7. They apparently had no intention of departing Singapore.
The police reminded all passengers who enter the transit hall with a boarding pass that they should be there only for the purpose of travelling to their next destinations.
“Those who abuse their boarding pass to enter the transit areas, with no intention to proceed to their next destination, are liable for an offence under the Protected Areas and Protected Places Act,” the police said.
Here are 12 other offences you may not have known about.
1. Annoying someone by behaving badly in public while drunk
According to section 510 of the Penal Code, whoever, in a state of intoxication, appears in any public place, or in any place which he cannot enter, and behaves “in such a manner as to cause annoyance to any person”, may be jailed up to six months, fined up to $1,000, or both.
That’s going to be many people on a Saturday night at Clarke Quay.
2. Annoying someone in a public place through an act, or by reciting or uttering a song with lyrics that are obscene
According to Section 294 of the Penal Code, this carries up to three months in jail, a fine, or both.
Now you know what to do if someone propositions you with a lewd song
3. Sale, distribution, rental of all things “obscene”, including paintings, books, figures
According to Section 292 of the Penal Code, the penalty is up to three months in jail, a fine, or both.
What is considered obscene?
According to the Singapore Statutes, the word “obscene”, is anything that tends to “deprave and corrupt persons” who are likely to see or read the materials.
You might want to think twice about selling that old sex toy on Carousell then.
4. Purposely obstructing a person, so as to prevent him from proceeding in any direction that he is allowed to walk in
According to Section 341 of the Penal Code, this carries a jail term of up to a month, a fine of up to $1,500, or both.
5. Using false weight or measure
According to Section 265 of the Penal Code, whoever fraudulently uses any false weight or false measure of length or capacity, or fraudulently uses any weight or any measure of length or capacity as a different weight or measure from what it is, may be sentenced to up to a year in jail, a fine, or both.
Hopefully, the vendors at the wet markets know this.
6. Your dog injuring a person
Any owner of a dog which causes injury to any person may rack up a fine of up to $5,000.
A leash might be cheaper than $5,000.
7. Bathing or washing yourself in on a public road, in a public tank, reservoir, or any water body
This will fetch a maximum fine of $1,000
Taking a shower at a swimming pool toilet may cost less.
8. Flying a kite that obstructs traffic on a public road
Anyone who flies any kite, or plays at any game, or does any act which obstructs or interferes with the traffic in any public road, or the use of the wires of any telephone may have to pay a fine of up to $5,000.
West Coast Park and Marina Barrage are good alternatives if you really would like to fly a kite.
9. Annoying someone by making noise in any way, including by an instrument
Any person who makes any noise ” to cause or be likely to cause annoyance or inconvenience to the occupier of any premises in the vicinity” may be fined up to $1,000.
Does your neighbour’s bad karaoke singing at 3am count?
10. Taking alcohol into a public hospital
Anyone who takes or tries to take without “due permission” into any public hospital any intoxicating liquor, drug or preparation may be jailed up to two months, fined up to $1,000, or both.
It is probably not the cure, no matter how convinced you are.
11. Making business deals at MRT stations
Tucked away among the better-known rules of riding the subway – no eating, no drinking, no smoking – is a Rapid Transit Systems Regulations prohibition against selling goods across the fare gate.
This rule has been in place for decades, but just in case you had not heard of it, at least one train station now has a notice in place for commuters.
Full-time national serviceman Xavier Lur was at Beauty World station on the Downtown Line when he spotted a sign with a quote from the relevant law: “No person shall for the purpose of any trade or business transfer any article or goods between the paid area and unpaid area unless the article or goods is taken by a person through an automatic gate.”
Ms Tammy Tan, senior vice president, corporate communications, SBS Transit, explained: “For commuter safety and security, we do not encourage loitering in our premises particularly at stations with high passenger flow.
“The notice has been put up at the Beauty World Station as we have noticed increasing numbers of commuters loitering to conduct what appears to be transactions in our premises.”
12. Leaving your vehicle engines idling
Enjoying the air-conditioner in your car while waiting for your friends to return? Too bad – you could still be handed a fine.
Since June 2016, repeat offenders who leave the engines of their stationary vehicles switched on have faced higher fines by the National Environment Agency.
Motorists who are caught for a second or subsequent time now have to fork out $100, up from the previous $70. If the sum is not paid, they could face a maximum court fine of $5,000.
Under the Environmental Protection and Management (Vehicular Emissions) Regulations, it is an offence to leave the engine of a motor vehicle running while it is stationary for reasons other than traffic conditions.
So wind down those windows and turn off that engine – you may save on that petrol bill.
Source: Singapore Statutes Online
This article was first published on September 23, 2016.
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16 pregnant women in Singapore confirmed to have Zika
The doctors of the pregnant women are following up closely with them to provide counselling and support.
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Foreigners arrested as Thai police find guns, dead body
Bangkok – Thai police raided a Bangkok building Friday and arrested five foreigners after a shootout, discovering guns, crystal meth, fake passports and a dead body hidden in a freezer, officers said.
The suspects include three English-speaking men and a Burmese maid and her husband, according to Bangkok’s police chief Sanit Mahathavorn.
Police said they are still confirming the nationalities of the three English speakers, who were reported in local media to be two Americans and one Briton.
One of the suspects grabbed a gun and opened fire on police during the raid, injuring an officer, police told reporters.
Police then discovered a dead body, carved up into pieces, inside a large freezer on the ground floor.
Officers initially told media it was a woman but later determined it was a “foreign man with blond hair,” said Sanit.
“His body was cut with sharp object into six pieces, put in a black bag and brought into the freezer,” the police chief told reporters, adding that the suspects have been brought to a station in southwest Bangkok for further interrogation.
Police said they also found forged passports, three guns and crystal meth inside the building, which the group had rented for three months.
“Tourism police investigated and found out that international criminals were staying at that place and using it to do wrong things,” Thailand’s tourist police commander, Surachet Hakpan, told reporters after the raid.
With porous borders, visa-free travel for many countries and notoriously corrupt law enforcement, Thailand has long been a haven for foreign criminals and fugitives.
The kingdom draws transnational criminals involved in everything from human trafficking to gem thefts or the illegal wildlife trade.
The current junta government has vowed to crack down on foreign criminals in an operation immigration police have called “Good guys in, bad guys out”.
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Chinese outrage over 'ugly' restoration of Great Wall
Beijing – Chinese social media users were in an uproar Friday over restoration of a 700-year-old section of the Great Wall that has been covered in concrete, turning it into a smooth, flat-topped path.
Known as one of the most beautiful portions of the “wild”, unrestored wall, the eight-kilometre (five-mile) Xiaohekou stretch in northeast Liaoning province was built in 1381 during the Ming Dynasty.
Photos posted online showed that its uneven, crumbling steps and plant growth had been replaced as far as the eye could see with a white, concrete-like cap.
“This looks like the work of a group of people who didn’t even graduate from elementary school,” said one user of China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform. “If this is the result, you might as well have just blown it up.”
“Such brutal treatment of the monuments left behind by our ancestors! How is it that people with low levels of cultural awareness can take on leadership positions?” asked another.
“Why don’t we just raze the Forbidden City in Beijing, too?”
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Photo GalleryOutrage over ‘ugly’ restoration of Great Wall
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Even the deputy director of Liaoning’s department of culture Ding Hui admitted: “The repairs really are quite ugly,” according to state broadcaster CCTV.
The Great Wall is not a single unbroken structure but stretches for thousands of kilometres in sections from China’s east coast to the edge of the Gobi desert.
In places it is so dilapidated that estimates of its total length vary from 9,000 to 21,000 kilometres, depending on whether missing sections are included. Despite its length it is not, as is sometimes claimed, visible from space.
Emergency maintenance was ordered for Xiaohekou in 2012 to “avoid further damage and dissolution” caused by “serious structural problems and issues due to flooding” and was completed in 2014, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage said in a statement on its website in response to public and media outcry.
The government body has begun an investigation into the approval, implementation and outcome of the maintenance work, stating that it would deal with work units and personnel found to be at fault severely, “without justifying their mistakes”.
Around 30 percent of China’s Ming-era Great Wall has disappeared over time as adverse natural conditions and reckless human activities – including stealing the bricks to build houses – erode the UNESCO World Heritage site, state media reports said last summer.
Under Chinese regulations people who take bricks from the Great Wall can be fined up to 5,000 yuan (S$1,013), according to the Global Times, but plant growth on the wall continues to accelerate decay, and tourism, especially to undeveloped sections, continues to severely damage the world’s longest human construction.
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Football: Wenger plays down Mourinho 'face break' threat
London – Arsene Wenger said Friday that he preferred to avoid a “destructive mode” as he played down claims that adversary Jose Mourinho had once wanted to “break his face”.
The Arsenal manager said he was concentrating solely on the Gunners’ Premier League clash with Chelsea on Saturday and did not want to linger on the controversial quote, contained in a new biography of Manchester United boss Mourinho being serialised in the Daily Mail newspaper.
Wenger, celebrating his 20th anniversary with the Gunners, clashed repeatedly with Mourinho when the Portuguese was in charge of London rivals Chelsea.
According to the new biography, Mourinho allegedly once told the author, football journalist Rob Beasley, when discussing Wenger: “I will find him one day outside a football pitch and I will break his face.” But Wenger, 66, keen not to add any fuel to the fire, told a news conference: “Look, I haven’t read the book and I certainly won’t read it.
“I cannot comment on that. I talk about football and that’s all I do. I’m not in a destructive mode, ever. I’m more constructive and I cannot comment on that because I’m focused on tomorrow’s game and how we want to play football.” The Frenchman added: “What is amazing is that has nothing to do with our game tomorrow. I personally am just focused on doing my job well and respecting everybody else.
“I do not want to especially comment because we play Chelsea tomorrow. I have no personal problem with anybody, I respect everybody in our game and I don’t feel I comment a lot on other teams.
“Sometimes I just say what I think, but that is part of the way I am.” Wenger added that the rivalry between Arsenal and Chelsea – where Antonio Conte is now in charge – was about more than his fractious relationship with Mourinho, who was sacked last season by Chelsea and took over at United this summer.
“Honestly, for me it was always just a big game and an important game, and the personal rivalry that you suggest existed stronger before was never, in my head, a concern,” Wenger said.
Asked if he would reveal his thoughts on Mourinho one day in an autobiography, Wenger replied: “I don’t know, I will maybe make a book one day, but I am not ready for that yet.” Mourinho was due to hold his regular Friday press conference later in the day.
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Chinese official sacked due to photo of him being carried over puddle
A Zhejiang province official was dismissed due to online accusations around a photo, Wenzhou Metropolis Daily reported.
The photo shows the official being carried by two insurance company employees while walking through a muddy puddle during the Typhon Meranti disaster relief in Taishun county of East China’s Zhejiang province on Friday.
After being recognised as Bao Xuwei, a county education bureau official, the photo was widely republished and shared online. In no time, netizens began to question why he used the insurance company employees to avoid the puddle and accused him of abusing his power.
From the public outrage over the photo, the bureau announced on Friday they were conducting an investigation into the matter and had dismissed Bao immediately from office.
Bao claims he was wrongly accused. Directly after a meeting he visited the disaster affected area and was not wearing water-proof shoes. After he attempted to cross the puddle, the two insurance company employees came to help him. It was only a few seconds, he said.
The two insurance company employees also confirmed they were just helping Bao cross over, and Bao was just one of others they helped.
Read also: Japan official angers with piggyback ride after deadly storm
Hu Liming, who took the photo, said he saw the insurance company employees helping people wanting to cross the muddy road. He wanted to show people helping each other during the disaster. He did not expect his photo to cause such a misunderstanding. Hu apologised for the accusations that followed the photo.
In the last few years, a number of officials have been found guilty of bribery and dismissed from photos posted online. In 2012, Yang Dacai, the incumbent head of Shaanxi Province work safety administration, was photographed grinning at scene of a grim bus crash. After seeing the photo, netizens accused and searched for vilifying evidence of Yang. Photos appeared online of Yang wearing luxury wristwatches, items he could not possibly afford on a public servant’s salary. He was dismissed from his position on corruption charges and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
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