The minders of giant pandas Kai Kai and Jia Jia threw a birthday bash for them at River Safari as they marked the fourth year of their arrival at the tourist attraction today (Sep 12).

Kai Kai celebrates his ninth birthday today, while female Jia Jia turned eight recently on Sep 3.

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Wildlife Reserves Singapore

It took their keepers four days to create their birthday ‘cakes’ which weighed 7kg collectively. Sweetened with honey, the frozen treats were embellished with apple and carrot slices, which are some of their favourite snacks.

Both pandas arrived at River Safari in 2012 on a 10-year loan from China.

Kai Kai and Jia Jia entered their second mating season in April earlier this year, but both natural mating and artificial insemination had not been successful.

But keepers and the zoo’s vet remain optimistic for a future Singapore panda cub as Jia Jia is still very young (teenager in human years), said a statement from Wildlife Reserves Singapore.

They will continue to employ breeding techniques that had proven to be successful at other zoos, it added.

chenj@sph.com.sg

Celebrate Panda Party at the River Safari

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Wildlife Reserves Singapore, The Straits Times, The New Paper, My Paper, Berita Harian

A former property agent from Propnex was convicted on Thursday for using $93,000 cash from a client to repay loan shark debts, said the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) in a statement.

The cash was meant to be passed to conveyancing lawyers to handle the purchase of an HDB flat.

Goh Chung Yong, 48, was fined $10,000, in default seven weeks’ imprisonment for handling his client’s transaction money, an offence under the Estate Agents Act.

Goh had instructed his client in January last year to pass him the money to pay the conveyancing lawyers handling the purchase of a flat, as his office was near the law firm.

The client handed the amount to Goh, along with another $13,000 in cash as Goh’s commission for assisting the owner with the sale of his Sembawang flat and the purchase of a Yishun flat.

About a month later, the conveyancing lawyers contacted the client and said that they never received the $93,000 from Goh.

The client was unable to to complete his purchase of the Yishun flat as a result, and he lodged a complaint with Goh’s company, Propnex Realty.

Propnex proceeded to advance the $93,000 to the client and succeeded in asking the Housing Development Board for an extension complete his flat purchase.

Investigations revealed that Goh initially lied to Propnex that the $93,000 was stolen from his car, but could not report the theft to the police.

He later admitted that he had used the money to pay off his debts owed to loansharks, but he ultimately repaid the $93,000 to Propnex after selling his own condominium unit in April last year.

This is the largest amount of transaction monies that a property agent has handled so far, among the 16 who have been prosecuted for the offence since 2010, the CEA said.

Those convicted of the offence can be fined up to $10,000 or jailed up to six months or both.

Repeat offenders face a fine of up to $500 for every day or part thereof during which the offence continues after conviction.

CEA advises consumers not to hand transaction monies, such as option fee, down-payment, stamp duties,deposits or sales proceeds, to their property agents or agencies, or make such requests to them.

huizhen@sph.com.sg

Singapore has reported eight new cases of the Zika virus as of 3pm today (Sept 14), according to figures on the National Environment Agency’s website.

Four of the new cases are in the Aljunied Crescent/Sims Drive/Kallang Way/Paya Lebar Way cluster, where the first cases were reported. The majority of the cases – 273 – remains in that cluster.

There are six other active clusters in Bedok North, Joo Seng, Bishan Street 12, Elite Terrace area in Siglap, Ubi Crescent and Circuit Road.

The new cases bring the total number reported in Singapore up to 341.

Locally-transmitted Zika in Singapore

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The Straits Times, The New Paper

Fighting Zika: Which mosquito repellent to use

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The Straits Times, New Straits Times, Avon, Reuters, The Business Times, Ronnie Lim, Far East Flora

What is the Zika virus?

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Reuters, The Straits Times, The New Paper, NEA

huizhen@sph.com.sg