New York – Artists will come together for a tribute concert to late pop icon Prince in October in his hometown Minneapolis, his family says.
The show will take place on October 13 at the newly built US Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings football team, Prince’s sister Tyka Nelson wrote on Facebook.
The lineup has not been announced, but Nelson said that tickets would go on sale later in August.
Prince, one of the most influential artists of his generation who popularised the “Minneapolis sound” of infectious funk, died on April 21 from a painkiller overdose at his Paisley Park estate outside the city.
The tribute concert could be a boon to his family amid question marks over the future of his estate.
Prince, who was outwardly a model of health, did not leave a will and had no recognised children. Tyka Nelson is his closest relative and he also had five half-siblings, but a number of other people have also claimed to be heirs.
The family put a professional administrator in charge of Prince’s affairs. A judge in June gave the green light for the service to seek business deals, saying the estate likely risked a shortfall in cash needed to pay taxes in the wake of Prince’s death.
The concert would be the only publicly sanctioned memorial event for Prince, who was guarded about his personal life despite his flamboyant stage presence.
His body was cremated and family and friends held a small gathering at Paisley Park shortly after his death, followed by a private service among his Jehovah’s Witness religious community.
David Bowie, another music legend whose death stunned fans this year, was similarly discreet with his family holding no public events to mourn him.
In contrast, King of Pop Michael Jackson – sometimes described as Prince’s rival in the 1980s – was mourned with a star-studded concert in Los Angeles in 2009 with his gold-plated casket in front of the stage.
Perhaps the best-known tribute concert in rock history was for Queen singer Freddie Mercury. His 1992 show was broadcast internationally from London’s Wembley Stadium to raise money for AIDS research.
Jakarta – The main airport serving the Indonesian capital Jakarta will next week open a new terminal to ease the burden on the country’s busiest aviation hub, the airport operator said Wednesday.
Air passenger numbers are soaring in Indonesia, the world’s biggest archipelago nation, as a growing middle class increasingly chooses to fly but ageing infrastructure is struggling to keep up.
The $380 million terminal at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, which will start operations at about midnight Monday, will have a capacity of 25 million passengers a year once fully operational, said state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura II.
The other terminals are currently handling a total of about 60 million passengers a year, way over their capacity.
The new Terminal 3 will start off handling only flights operated by Indonesian flag carrier Garuda, and it is hoped it will be fully operational by March next year.
“This will be the biggest terminal in Indonesia,” Angkasa Pura II chief executive Djoko Murjatmodjo told AFP.
It will eventually be connected to central Jakarta, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) away, by a rail link. There is currently no rail line between the airport and city centre, leaving passengers facing monster traffic jams to get into Jakarta at busy times.
The terminal’s opening has been delayed for more than a month after the government ordered alterations following the discovery that an important part of the airport was not visible from the air traffic control tower.
As well as ageing infrastructure, the Indonesian aviation sector also faces problems with safety and has suffered a string of deadly crashes in recent years.
SINGAPORE – A new CPF retirement plan to help Singaporeans cater for the rising costs of living in their golden years is in the works.
The CPF Advisory Panel is proposing to introduce a new CPF Life Plan that will feature monthly payments that increase by 2 per cent every year.
But it will come with a cost: Those who opt for the CPF Life plan – the national annuity scheme – with “escalating payouts” will start with payments that are about 20 per cent lower compared to the current default plan.
CPF Advisory Panel chairman Tan Chorh Chuan said on Wednesday (Aug 3) that the plan was configured this way to ensure that the system remains sustainable.
Panel member and actuarial consultant Colin Pakshong added that the panel is “constrained by simple mathematics”.
“Anyone who chooses the escalating payouts plan will have to decide if the trade-off in lower payouts at the start is worth the escalating payouts in the future,” he said.
Under the current CPF Standard Plan – the default option – a CPF member with about $80,500 on his accounts can expect to receive $720 a month for the rest of his life.
If the member chooses the new plan, he gets just $560 at the start. But this will increase every year.
By the time he is 75, his monthly payments will reach $680. And nine years after that, when he is 87, his monthly payments will grow to $860 a month.
The new option is aimed at people who are worried about the rising costs of living late into their lives, especially with inflation eating into their purchasing power, added Prof Tan.
For those who want higher initial payouts, they can top up their CPF Life premiums, or delay the starting age for payouts up to age 70.
This recommendation, along with others including a new, simplified retirement investment scheme, came up on Wednesday at a press conference.
The 13-member panel, appointed in September 2014 after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the CPF system review in his National Day Rally speech, first made suggestions to give members more say and greater retirement adequacy last February.
Recommendations then included letting members set aside three different sums at age 55 – a basic sum of $80,500, a higher sum of $161,000 or an enhanced sum of $241,500 – giving them monthly payouts of between $650 and $1,900 from age 65. It also recommended a lump-sum withdrawal at age 65 of up to 20 per cent of CPF savings.
The Government has implemented the changes and has accepted the latest suggestions.
In a letter to Prof Tan, Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say accepted the recommendations on behalf of the Government and thanked the panel for its work.
Noting the panel had been given a complex task, he described its recommendations as “both elegant in their simplicity and far-sighted”.
He added: “The Government will work to implement the panel’s recommendations and will proactively promote awareness and understanding of these new CPF options so that members can make informed decisions to better meet their retirement needs.”
This article was first published on Aug 3, 2016.
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SINGAPORE – A Social Service Office (SSO) officer has been accused of misappropriating over S$340,000 in funds meant as assistance for the needy, and using it to fund shopping sprees at luxury boutiques like Louis Vuitton and Mulberry, and pay off debt at…
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Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam says the comments, which suggest that he was not supportive of increased funding for polytechnics and Institutes of Technical Education (ITEs), were “very hurtful” to him.
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Kathmandu – Nepal’s new Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal pledged Wednesday to unite a country hit by deadly protests over constitutional changes after lawmakers elected the Maoist leader and former guerrilla to head a new government.
Dahal, better known by his nom de guerre Prachanda or “the fierce one”, led a decade-long Maoist insurgency before transforming the rebel movement into a political party after a 2006 peace deal.
He is now tasked with rebuilding the country after a devastating earthquake and resolving simmering unrest over the new national charter adopted last September.
“I pledge that I will unite everyone in the country,” he said in an address to parliament before the vote.
“I have a responsibility to solve this problem. I feel that I have been put forward as a candidate to work as a bridge between (communities),” he said.
Dahal, head of the Maoist party, ran unopposed and secured 363 out of 573 votes to become the Himalayan nation’s premier for a second time.
He has served as prime minister once before, after the Maoists won elections in 2008, but only lasted nine months in office before resigning.
Dahal, whose Maoists are the third-largest force in parliament, pulled out of a coalition led by K.P. Sharma Oli – the former prime minister – three weeks ago and secured the support of the biggest party, the Nepali Congress.
He also won the backing of the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) – an alliance of protesting parties – paving the way for warmer ties between the new government and demonstrators from the Madhesi ethnic minority.
Oli, who heads the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), faced fierce criticism over his handling of a months-long border blockade by demonstrators who say the constitution left them marginalised.
More than 50 people died in clashes between police and protesters demanding revisions to federal state borders set out in the new charter.
Commentators say Dahal is likely to be more sympathetic to protesters’ concerns following the Madhesi parties’ decision to back his candidacy.
“Prachanda is likely to address the long-pending issues raised by Madheshi parties… but he will have to bring (his former coalition partner) UML on board in order to amend the constitution,” said Guna Raj Luitel, editor of Nepali daily Nagarik.
Any changes to the constitution must be passed in parliament by a two-thirds majority, making Oli’s UML, which holds 182 out of 595 seats, an important source of support.
The new charter, the first drawn up by elected representatives, was meant to bolster Nepal’s transformation from a Hindu monarchy to a democratic republic after decades of political instability.
But continuing discussions between the government and protesters have failed to break the deadlock.
Prachanda will also have to mend ties with powerful neighbour India, which made no secret of its disapproval of the constitution.
Kathmandu in turn accused New Delhi of supporting the border blockade, which sparked crippling shortages of vital supplies across landlocked Nepal.
Meanwhile, some four million Nepalis are still living in tents or huts after an earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people in 2015.
Stung by criticism over delays, the government has vowed to kickstart the rebuilding of schools and hospitals and speed up distribution of a $2,000 payout to homeless households.
So far, some 42,000 families have received the first $500 instalment of the payout, fewer than eight per cent of those left homeless by the disaster.
Nepalis frustrated by the slow pace of reconstruction said they had few hopes for the new government.
“So many who lost their homes in the earthquake are still in shelters. But (politicians) are always busy playing power games,” said Nabin Shrestha, who drives a three-wheeler for a living.
Prachanda will be the eighth prime minister to lead Nepal since 2008, when he became premier for the first time and overthrew a 240-year-old feudal monarchy.
SINGAPORE – There were no warning signs that Benjamin Lim, 14, was depressed or suicidal from the time he was brought to the principal’s office to when he left the police station the day he died, said State Counsel Wong Woon Kwong in his closing statements for a coroner’s inquiry on Wednesday (Aug 3).
He added that there were “various malicious falsehoods about this case which have been irresponsibly published and circulated by third parties”.
These include “wilfully misleading assertions” that said Benjamin was brought to the police station by five police officers, that he was interrogated for over three hours, and that officers who went to his school wore clothes and passes identifying themselves as the police.
A two-day inquiry into Benjamin’s death on Jan 26 closed in May with State Coroner Marvin Bay highlighting discrepancies in evidence, such as who made the decision to pull the boy from a school camp.
Back then, it was revealed that Benjamin was told that he would not be attending the camp the next day after his mother’s call with the school counsellor.
Minutes later, he was found dead at the foot of their block in Yishun. The North View Secondary School student was arrested earlier that day and questioned for allegedly molesting an 11-year-old girl in a lift.
School counsellor Karry Lung said she told Mrs Lim of the school’s suggestion that Benjamin not attend the camp, but his mother disputed this and said she was merely informed of the school’s decision that he would not go.
Benjamin’s family cannot be named due to a gag order.
Both Inspector Poh Wee Teck, the officer who interviewed Benjamin at school, and Madam Lung suggested that the student, who was calmer before, grew anxious as he spoke to his mother on the phone before leaving his school with the police.
State Counsel Wong said on Tuesday that Benjamin’s denial of the alleged molest to his mother and sister “provides some glimpse of how (he) may have harboured concerns about the perceptions of those closest to him”.
“But it is not possible simplistically to delve into the psyche of (Benjamin) to understand what prompted his actions at home which led to his death,” he said.
“A multitude of factors can influence suicidal behaviour,” he added, following further evidence obtained a doctor that showed he did not have known mental issues.
The State Counsel said as well that the police had taken steps to reduce unnecessary stress that Benjamin might face.
The school also took “active efforts” to watch out for the boy’s interest and engage his mother, with the aim of getting her input about the school camp, he said.
This article was first published on Aug 3, 2016.
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| HELPLINES | |
| Samaritans of Singapore (SOS): | 1800-2214444 |
| Singapore Association for Mental Health: | 1800-2837019 |
| Sage Counselling Centre: | 1800-5555555 |
| Care Corner Mandarin Counselling: | 1800-3535800 |
See also:
Benjamin Lim death inquiry: Different accounts of events on day teen died
Benjamin Lim case: MHA held off ‘out of respect for teen’s family’
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Oil edged higher towards US$42 a barrel on Wednesday after hitting its lowest since April the previous day, supported by an industry report showing a fall in U.S. inventories and a weaker dollar.
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