This change – to recognise the increasing need for students to possess both soft skills and deep technical skills for the future economy – was announced by Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung at a forum on Saturday (Jun 25).
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Co-operative programme for university students to study, work to be launched
What is the leading cause of death in Singaporean women?
Only 10 per cent of women are aware that heart disease and stroke are the leading causes of death in Singaporean women, according to a survey of 1,000 women by the Singapore Heart Foundation’s Go Red For Women campaign.
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RWS 1-for-1 One-Day Adult Passes to Universal Studios, Sea Aquarium & Waterpark for 11B Holders…
[STARTS TOMORROW] 1-for-1 one-day passes to Universal Studios, S.E.A. Aquarium, Adventure Cove Waterpark & Trick Eye Museum for SAF/SPF/SCDF 11B holders (26 Jun – 1 Jul)
Not a 11B holder? Share this & find someone as each holder can purchase up to 6 tickets per transaction! Plus many more deals up to 50% off at RWS for 11B holders
RWS 1-for-1 One-Day Adult Passes to Universal Studios, Sea Aquarium & Waterpark for 11B Holders…
Enjoy 1-for-1 One-Day Adult Pass to Universal Studios Singapore, S.E.A. Aquarium and Adventure Cove Waterpark specially for 11B holders from SAF, SCDF and SPF
2 sent to hospital following beach tram incident at Sentosa
Two people were taken to hospital after a tram travelling along Palawan Beach braked to avoid hitting a lowering barrier on Saturday afternoon (Jun 25).
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Authorities to step up efforts against drug abuse: Amrin Amin
Singapore saw 1,330 drug abusers aged below 30 last year, the highest number in a decade. There was also a six per cent increase in the number of youth abusers arrested for the first quarter of this year, compared to the same period last year, according to Mr Amrin.
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NKF launches mobile diabetes screening buses
The bus will go out to the community once every quarter to prevent diabetic patients from developing kidney failure.
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Ayaka Hirahara sings with sensualilty in new album 'Love'
Ayaka Hirahara is showing her new, mature side on her latest album, “LOVE” (Universal). The album features songs written by Japan’s leading singer-songwriters, including Miyuki Nakajima, Kazuo Zaitsu, Koji Tamaki and Hideaki Tokunaga, besides Hirahara herself.
Hirahara sings “Muscat” – music and lyrics by Tamaki – with amazing sensuality.
The singer pointed out that it has lines such as “Maruhadaka ni sareta” (I was laid bare) and “Watashi wa amai muscat” (I’m a sweet muscat).
“The lyrics could sound mellow, but not necessarily. It actually brought back memories of my childhood, the warm touches of my parents. The feelings were so precious, I couldn’t help crying,” she said.
While the scene is about two people about to make love, the song covers their whole story up to the day they meet each other.
Hirahara was 5 when she first met Tamaki backstage at an Anzenchitai concert, the rock band in which he sings lead vocals. Her father, saxophone player Makoto Hirahara, was performing with them at the time.
“I was a big fan,” she recalled of Tamaki. “I pretended to be asleep when he held me in his arms, because I was so shy.”
Tamaki told Hirahara he was very moved by the opportunity to write a song for the little girl who grew up to be a singer. The song is the fruit of this special relationship.
Most of the songs naturally have strong temperaments, considering the fact that they were offered by singer-songwriters. Yet Hirahara successfully turned them into easy-listening pop songs by showing her flexibility in interpreting them.
Hirahara sang Nakajima’s “Aria – Air -,” a powerful song that drives people forward, in an aggressive and straightforward way.
While Hirahara is perceived as a singer who gives impeccable performances, she is strongly aware that she “must not be complacent.”
A line in Nakajima’s song goes “Hitori de uta wa utaenai, uketomerarete umareru” (You can’t sing a song all alone. It comes into being when someone accepts it.) On her previous album, Hirahara also included the song “Don’t give it up,” which has the line, “There’s nothing more boring than being perfect.”
Hirahara admitted she used to work scrupulously, writing instructions to herself next to each syllable of the lyrics to sing them accurately. But she said she was able to allow emotion to carry her at times in this album.
“I felt relieved when I realised that perfection for me is not perfection for others. I think it would be more fun than picking on small details,” she said.
Hirahara is currently touring across the country, with stops at Kamakura Performing Arts Center in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, on July 9 and Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, on July 30 and 31. Visit www.camp-a-ya.com for more information.Speech
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Saturday, June 25, 2016 – 18:02
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Doctors impressed by Mr Heng Swee Keat's 'spectacular' recovery
SINGAPORE — Doctors whom TODAY spoke to were impressed by Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat’s speedy recovery after he collapsed from a stroke, noting how he was able to walk and chat with doctors and nurses as a healthy person would.
Patients who survive a…
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Bangkok governor ridiculed for describing floods as 'water waiting to be drained'
One of the most popular topics on the timelines of Thai social media users over the past week is how areas in Bangkok were inundated after hours of rain on Monday night.
Many shared pictures and updated on the flood situation. However, Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra was trolled after he asked the media not to say Bangkok was facing floods but to instead call it “water waiting to be drained”.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s agency @BMA1555 quickly toed the line and tweeted, “Lat Prao District Office is expediting solving the problem of water waiting to be drained in Sena Village and other areas.”
Not surprisingly, many made fun of the semantic spin.
TV presenter Chake Rattanatangtrakul wrote: “I have some thoughts in mind waiting to be drained. Dear audience, what else do you have waiting to be drained?”
Wongnai.com posted, “Don’t say [I am] fat, [my] fat is waiting to be drained.”
A Tale From Hospital posted a picture of crowded hospital and wrote: “Don’t say we are flooded with patients, our patients are waiting to be cleared.”
Penrada Paraden joked: “Once it rains, Bangkok is flooded because Bangkok has ‘Khlong Ton’ [district name which means clogged canal] and ‘Huai Khwang’ [district name which means obstructing creek].”
On Twitter, @bkksnow wrote: “From now on, Thais can be more optimistic. Overwhelming debt = debt waiting to be cleared; overwhelming assignments = assignments waiting to be drained.”
@LLTD_TU: “In the case of expensive microphone procurement, don’t call it corruption, call it ‘large margin’.”
@BangkokWatchdog: “Don’t call Thailand a military dictatorship.”
@tpagon: “We don’t say the rain is coming but the rain is waiting to be drained from the sky. We don’t say the Bangkok governor is just taking his salary but we say he is the Bangkok Governor waiting to be drained from the post.”
National Artist and writer Makut Onrudee posted on Facebook, “Thai people are masters of language. They use language rationally. For example: ‘contained water’ cannot be called ‘flood water’. Considering the words and the meaning, it was believed that the water will not become flood or be contained. It must be drained unless somebody becomes nasty and puts a couch in the Giant Tunnel [Bangkok’s drainage tunnel]. In future, we might learn new words, ‘water overflowing the tunnel’, that’s not flood, not contained water, or ‘water waiting to be drained’.”
Besides Sukhumbhand, a quote by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was also talk of the town. Some said the media did not fully quote him so the public got him wrong.
Many social media users, though, discussed the problem seriously.
Voravan Tarapoom posted pictures of recent floods in London and wrote: “Look further, why is there flooding in so many places, Paris, Bangkok, London, etc? What are the causes?”
Is This Thailand posted pictures with the caption: “In case of flooding, Thais blame the weather, the governor, the PM, but they forget to blame themselves for littering and blocking the drainage.”
Kritsada Wiset posted pictures of mountains of garbage and wrote: “Too much dramatised discussion about the flood. Now do you know why it is flooded?”
Lek Parinya posted a drawing comparing the floods in 2011, the drought since last year and the current flood and asked, “What should we do?”
Yesterday, the phrase was still popular.
On Twitter, @ArPaeDotCom: “The rain + water waiting to be drained + the crowd at Don Mueang, please spare some time so that you don’t miss your flight.”
Read also
Tornado kills 58, injures 5000 in China
Man drives SUV into floodwaters to prevent 3 persons from being swept away
78 dead, 500 hurt by storms in China’s Jiangsu
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AFP, Reuters
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Saturday, June 25, 2016 – 17:40
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Thai PM orders transfer of Samut Sakhon governor after allegations of Rohingya trafficking
The governor of Samut Sakhon and 22 other officials including law enforcement officers of the province and elsewhere were abruptly transferred and they face investigation for alleged abuse of labour, ill-treatment of the Rohingya and human trafficking.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha issued the transfer order in his capacity as the chief of the National Council for Peace and Order.
The transfer order was issued just a few hours after Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi met and held discussions with Prayut at Government House on Friday evening.
On Thursday, Suu Kyi visited migrant workers from her country at Talad Talay Thai in Samut Sakhon province, which is known as Little Myanmar because of the great number of Myanmar migrants working there. Suu Kyi reportedly received complaints from the workers about alleged abuses suffered by them. The Samut Sakhon governor was transferred along with three senior officials in the province.
Governor Manrat Ratanasukhon was transferred to an inactive post at the Interior Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Office.
Nanthawut Utsahatan, the deputy chief prosecutor of the province, was transferred to an inactive post at the Office of the Attorney-General.
Songwut Chotima, Samut Sakhon’s chief industry officer, was transferred to an inactive post at the Industry Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Office while Ratana Palachai, the province’s chief labour officer, was transferred to an inactive post at the Labour Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Office.
The order also transferred a public prosecutor and deputy public prosecutor from Nathawee district in Songkhla province to the Office of the Attorney-General.
Prayut also moved 17 police officers both in Bangkok and other provinces, whose ranks ranged from police major to police major-general, to inactive posts at the Royal Thai Police. The police officers included those from Songkhla’s Sadao district.
Allegations of Rohingya trafficking were believed to be behind the transfer of officers in Nathawee and Sadao while police officers in Bangkok were transferred apparently following a recent crackdown on migrant prostitutes at the Nataree massage parlour.
The order stated that the ministries or agencies the transferred officers belonged to must investigate them for corruption. If they were found to have committed no wrongdoing, their agencies must find new posts at the same level for them but they will not be reinstated to their posts in Samut Sakhon.
Rohingya, victims of human trafficking
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Reuters, The Nation/ANN, The Daily Star/ANN, The Star/ANN, Vice News, AFP
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Saturday, June 25, 2016 – 17:31
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