SINGAPORE – Households in Singapore are the richest in Asia, beating countries such as Japan and China, but they also have the highest debt per capita in the region, according to a report by financial services firm Allianz.
In the Global Wealth Report…
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Singapore households are richest in Asia: Allianz report
Nathan Hartono in the finals of China singing contest
Nathan Hartono has made it to the top six of reality TV singing competition Sing! China.
Malaysia news website Kwong Wah yesterday (Sept 20) listed the six singers who made it to the into the final six: Nathan Hartono, Wang Chenrui, Xu Geyang, Jiang Dunhao, Malaysia’s Jeryl Lee, and Yang Meina.
It was originally to be a top-five fight at the finals in the Beijing National Stadium on Oct 7, but the number of finalists was expanded to six at the last moment at the recording of the show on Monday night (Sept 19).
The buzz on the Internet is that the number of finalists was upped so that at least one singer from Harlem Yu’s team can make it to the finals.
The competing singers are grouped into teams led by four “mentors” – Jay Chou, Na Ying, Wang Feng, and Yu.
Hartono is the only Singaporean in the competition, and is part of Chou’s team.
sinsh@sph.com.sg

SBS Transit, SMRT and Tower Transit roped in to help new operator Go-Ahead
Go-Ahead said the short-term arrangement was made due to “higher-than-expected staff attrition” as well as the “fine tuning of its schedules”.
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Michelin launches first mainland China guide in Shanghai
Shanghai – The famed Michelin food guide launched its first edition in mainland China Wednesday, awarding stars to elegant luxury establishments as well as a humble haunt serving up Cantonese staples.
The inaugural edition covers the commercial hub of Shanghai and gives stars to 26 restaurants, including the world’s least expensive two-star establishment Canton 8 – a popular lunchtime spot catering to local families.
“Canton 8 is a reflection of what can be found in Shanghai – masterful, delicious and very good-quality cooking,” said Michael Ellis, international director of the Michelin guides.
Lunch there can cost as little as 48 yuan (S$9.80), Michelin said.
Chef Jian Jieming of Canton 8 said he had “never dreamed” of making the list. He credited the fresh ingredients and “comfortable atmosphere” of the restaurant for its two-star award.
The publication of the inaugural mainland China edition follows the company’s first guide to Singapore in July, when Michelin inspectors gave stars to the city-state’s famous street food stalls.
The guides, first published in France more than a century ago to promote automobile travel, now cover 28 countries and spotlight diverse cuisines including Brazilian, Burmese, Cajun, Peruvian, and Tibetan.
But they are not without their critics, who question whether the quality of street fare in places like Hong Kong and Singapore can compare to the French haute cuisine on which the guide’s reputation was made.
“We have to adapt to the country,” Claire Dorland-Clauzel, executive vice president at Michelin, told AFP.
“Our role is to promote quality food everywhere, not (only) French food.” The China guide awarded its highest three-star rating to T’ang Court, a cosy six-table Cantonese restaurant in The Langham hotel, famous for dishes that include braised sea cucumber and Wagyu beef.
“The talented and creative chef Justin Tan offers cuisine in which traditional Cantonese dishes rub shoulders with some very modern dishes,” Ellis said.
After learning of the award, chef Tan told AFP he “never imagined” winning three stars, adding that he was now “very nervous”.
Restaurants that have won a star from the culinary bible have in the past built big businesses after being recognised, with Hong Kong’s Tim Ho Wan and Taiwan’s Din Tai Fung turning into international franchises.
Canton 8 can likely expect to see a similar surge in customers. On Tuesday night, before the release of the guide, the inexpensive two-storey restaurant was filled with only around 20 diners feasting on crystal prawn dumplings and lobster porridge.
Regular patrons expressed pride Wednesday in the recognition of their local favourite, where tables were packed and reservations required for lunch.
A cosmopolitan city with a sprawling, tree-lined French Quarter, Shanghai is the latest Asian city to feature in the guide following the launch of editions focusing on Hong Kong, Taipei and Singapore.
“What makes Shanghai particularly exciting is it’s been an economic and cultural crossroads for decades and the gastronomy of Shanghai really reflects that rich history,” Ellis told AFP.
International recognition of Chinese cuisine is “overdue”, said Fuchsia Dunlop, a cook and food writer specialising in Chinese cuisine.
“China has the most amazing gastronomic culture, and for historic reasons it has not been at the forefront of international gastronomy,” she said.
But she was not convinced Michelin’s approach of sending individual reviewers could truly identify the country’s best restaurants.
Chinese cuisine traditionally caters to groups, with family-style meals consisting of several shared dishes, she said.
“If you have one person going out to eat, it’s impossible for them to get a sense of a full, balanced Chinese meal,” she said.
“Even if you went 10 times, you wouldn’t get a sense of a meal with all the contrasts.”

2016: The year love died in Hollywood
Los Angeles – The imminent divorce of “Brangelina” is the latest in a series of celebrity splits giving the impression that the average Hollywood marriage has about as much chance of success as a non-white actor at the Oscars.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie-Pitt have both been through divorces before, he with “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston and she with actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton.
This year has also seen Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin finalize their famous “conscious uncoupling” around the same time that Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were squabbling over the terms of their split.
Drew Barrymore, Lisa Marie Presley, Dennis Quaid and James McAvoy have announced divorces from their respective partners too, sparking some gossip websites to refer to 2016 as the year of the Hollywood divorce.
Read also: Team Aniston memes flood social media after Jolie and Pitt announce divorce
In 2012 statistics website PolitiFact estimated that the lifelong probability of an American marriage ending in divorce was 40-50 percent, citing academics and the National Survey of Family Growth.
Kelly Frawley, a partner at New York law firm Kasowitz, Benson, Torres and Friedman, believes that while there is no reason to think the rich and famous split more often than the rest of us, the pressures which put strain on relationships are amplified in the rarified air of Tinseltown.
“There are standard things that cause marriages to disintegrate – concerns about money, fights about how to raise the children, issues of fidelity,” she told AFP.
“Those are much bigger scale when you are dealing with a celebrity couple because there’s so much accessibility to all the things that make it easy to step out of a marriage.
“You can spend money with ease, you can leave with ease, you can have affairs with ease.” It’s not all doom and gloom. Denzel and Pauletta Washington have been going strong since 1983 while Billy Crystal, Christopher Walken and their respective sweethearts expect to celebrate golden wedding anniversaries before the end of the decade.
But unlike skin peels, kale and the 5:2 diet, divorce is one celebrity fad that has endured through the ages and the Hollywood hills are littered with the carcasses of euthanized showbiz marriages.
Among the high profile casualties are Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, who announced on June 30 2015, one day after their ten-year anniversary, that they were calling it a day.
Tom Cruise was on his third marriage by the time he and Katie Holmes split in 2012 and there were divorces in 2010 for Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson, and Elizabeth Hurley and Arun Nayar.
“Celebrities are under a unique microscope, where every nuance is dissected over and over again the slightest misunderstanding is reported like you’re splitting up right away,” said Judi Bloom, a licensed marriage and family therapist based in Southern California.
“That can really wear down a couple in the end.” One big problem for Hollywood couples, she told AFP, is that they spend so much time apart on their separate projects, which can “pull at the fabric of a relationship.”
Some avoid growing apart by continuing to work together after getting hitched.
Warren Beatty and Annette Bening began dating during the filming of “Bugsy” in 1991, married a year later and filmed “Love Affair” together in 1994.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett are still together a quarter century after meeting on the set of his sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” when she auditioned to play his girlfriend.
She didn’t get the part but she got Smith – marrying the actor in 1997 and appearing alongside him in 2001 biopic “Ali.” It doesn’t always work, of course.
Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton have joined forces for no fewer than seven films but called it a day after 13 years, an unlucky number which was also the length of the marriage of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, and the number of his films in which she appeared.
Rob Shuter, a former Hollywood publicist for Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson and others who now runs NaughtyGossip.com, told AFP celebrities and their representatives plan divorce announcements down to the most minute detail.
“The announcement about Brad and Angie came out one day after the weekly magazines went to print, which means that they get a week of breathing space,” he said.
Shuter says that while print is less important in the digital age than it used to be, the timing was still “a disaster” for People, which has the largest audience of any American magazine, and its rival Us Weekly.
He believes Pitt would have been the more passive partner in planning their divorce announcement because of Jolie-Pitt’s track record with carefully stage-managing the news cycle.
“When she was pregnant with Shiloh she didn’t make the announcement with an official statement, she walked around the corner and let her bump show for ‘People’ magazine,” he said.

Tan to take over Singapore swim team
Former national swimming coach Sergio Lopez, who led Singapore to a record 23 golds at the last SEA Games, left a void in the national set-up when he stepped down after August’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
A month on, and the search for his replacement is over.
The Straits Times understands that Gary Tan, currently national assistant coach, will soon be appointed head coach of the national training centre squad and formally take charge of the national swimmers.
Tan, a two-time Olympian, will be supported by technical director Sonya Porter and National Youth Sports Institute (NYSI) head swim coach Leonard Tan in the national set-up.
The NYSI works closely with the Singapore Sports School (SSP) and Singapore Sports Institute to drive youth sports as well as support top young athletes from both mainstream schools and the SSP.
It is believed that the Singapore Swimming Association (SSA) is also looking to appoint a consulting coach to supervise the overall coaching staff.
Yesterday, SSA president Lee Kok Choy kept his cards close to his chest, saying: “We’ll be announcing something in due time; we’re working on the plan and we will come back to you when we are ready.
“We’re still working out the details, and we’re making good progress.”
Lee was speaking on the sidelines of the unveiling of Liberty Insurance as the official insurance partner for next month’s Fina/airweave Swimming World Cup presented by Yakult here.
Gary declined to comment.
It is believed that Leonard will help with coaching the junior swimmers, while Porter’s main focus is creating and implementing pathways for the long-term development of national swimmers.
This includes potential tie-ups with universities in the United States or hosting foreign swimmers.
Jamaica’s world championship silver medallist Alia Atkinson and American Kevin Cordes, who won 4x100m medley gold in Rio, are some who have trained with the national team.
Porter has more than 20 years’ experience coaching in the United States’ National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Division 1, including a stint as associate head coach at the University of Alabama.
Tan’s appointment will be pleasing for Lopez, who had earlier endorsed the 34-year-old on his Facebook page, saying that he believed “from the bottom of my heart that coach Gary Tan should be the next national coach”.
Lopez, now associate head coach of Auburn University’s swimming and diving team, also wrote: “He is what Singapore swimming needs to keep the local coaches aligned to work for the ultimate gain of Singapore.”
National swimmers told The Straits Times that they are unaware of developments, but would welcome Tan’s appointment.
Sprinter Amanda Lim believes that he is in “good shape” to head the squad after gaining valuable coaching experience from Lopez.
“Gary is well-equipped to take over, but I would leave that decision ultimately to the association because I believe they will always make the best decision for us,” said the 23-year-old at yesterday’s sponsorship announcement at the Singapore Sports Museum’s Black Box.
“For me, Gary has always been a part of my training journey so whether he is head coach or not doesn’t really matter to me – as long as there’s the word ‘coach’ in front of his name, that’s good.”
Fellow national swimmer Pang Sheng Jun agreed, adding: “Sergio has left a legacy behind in teaching us how to work as a team and he’s also changed our mindset in enabling us to believe we can be the best in the world.
“I think Gary and Sonya have both learnt a lot from Sergio, and they will be able to continue what Sergio has left behind.”

This article was first published on September 21, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
COE premiums for cars and open category down, other categories up
SINGAPORE – Certificate of Entitlement (COE) premiums closed mixed at the end of the latest bidding exercise on Wednesday (Sept 21), with prices for cars and the open category seeing a dip.
Premiums for small cars (up to 1600CC and 97KW) went down by 2.92 per…
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Car COEs close lower in latest bidding exercise
Motorcycle and commercial vehicle COE premiums rose.
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TigerAir: 12¢ Flights to All Destinations 12hr Promo on 23 Sep 2016
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Movie Date: The Magnificent Seven (PG13)
STARRING: Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Lee Byung Hun, Haley Bennett, Peter Sarsgaard, Vincent D’Onofrio, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier
DIRECTOR: Antoine Fuqua





























