SINGAPORE – More than six months after their loss in Aljunied GRC at last September’s General Election, the People’s Action Party (PAP) activists who contested have continued working the ground in the Workers’ Party-run constituency, rolling out projects such…
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PAP’s Aljunied team continues to roll out programmes for residents
Sisters’ Islands Marine Park to be conservation site
The Sisters’ Islands Marine Park is set to become a site for marine conservation, research, outreach and education, under plans revealed by the National Parks Board (NParks) on Saturday.
The 40ha park, the first marine park in Singapore, stretches around the…
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Restored shoreline, boardwalk to protect Ubin’s biodiversity
SINGAPORE – A rejuvenated shoreline, a new coastal boardwalk and spaces for critically endangered animal species – such as otter dens – are in the works for Pulau Ubin, in an effort to protect the island’s rich biodiversity.
Works to restore the island’s…
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TODAY’s brief, Monday, May 23
Obama visits Vietnam
United States President Barack Obama is in Vietnam today as part of a three day visit to strengthen ties with Hanoi so as to balance Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the region. Mr Obama will have bilateral meetings with Vietnamese…
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Urban Explorer Workshop for kids
Urban Explorer Workshop for kids
from Sunday, May 29, 2016 at 1:00 PM to Sunday, May 29, 2016 at 5:00 PM
from Sunday, May 29, 2016 at 1:00 PM to Sunday, May 29, 2016 at 5:00 PM
Level 1, Queenstown Public Library
53 Margaret Drive, Singapore, Singapore
Pulau Ubin to have coastal boardwalk after shoreline restored
There have also been efforts to protect critically endangered species unique to the island, like the Oriental Small-clawed Otter.
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12,000 take part in The Straits Times Run in the City
SINGAPORE – 12,000 people including Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin took part in The Straits Times Run (ST Run) in the City this morning (May 22).
Mr Tan, who was the guest of honour, flagged off runners in the 10km race before taking part in it himself.
This year’s ST Run also included the OCBC Mighty Savers 5km Family Run and the 18.45km run – named to mark the year that The Straits Times was founded.
The winners were: Stephen Munhathia Nkubitu (men’s 18.45km), Margaret Njuguna (women’s 18.45km), Elija Muturi Karanja (men’s 10km) and Jasmine Goh (women’s 10km).
Held at the F1 Pit Building, the fourth edition of ST Run was accompanied by a post-race carnival that was its largest to date. It featured the F1 Pit Stop Challenge, in which members of the public could try their hand at changing the tyres of a Formula One race car. The fastest participants won themselves exclusive autograph sessions and pit lane passes for the coming Singapore Grand Prix in September.
“I’m very happy that so many people turned up, and they seem to be enjoying themselves. Each year we organise this run because we want to get the readers to come and join in and enjoy themselves. I think we had a perfect day, lovely weather, very scenic route. It was a wonderful event,” The Straits Times’ editor Warren Fernandez said in a statement.
huizhen@sph.com.sg
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Sunday, May 22, 2016 – 22:43
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Football: Myanmar fans get fleeting glimpse of Foxes
YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar football fans flocked Sunday to see newly-crowned English Premier League champions Leicester City as they made a whirlwind visit to Yangon and took in the city’s stunning Shwedagon Pagoda.
The Foxes, who have spent a week soaking up the adulation of a growing Thai fanbase, were greeted with a cascade of selfies at Yangon airport before they were whisked away for a brief tour of the Shwedagon, which contains relics from the Buddha.
His hands clasped in respect, Italian manager Claudio Ranieri knelt alongside Leicester’s Thai owner, billionaire Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, and several players in front of the glittering pagoda which soars over Yangon’s skyline.
Duty-free magnate Vichai is a devout Buddhist renowned for his deeply superstitious approach to club affairs.
During Leicester’s odds-defying title-winning season Vichai repeatedly flew Thai monks to the British city to bless the team and stadium.
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Reuters, AFP, TNP
The club have attracted new fans across Asia since their 5,000-1 outsider title win, even winning over some supporters from traditional regional favourites Manchester United.
“All football fans like Leicester because they tried very hard and gave the best they had,” Chan Myae Ko Ko Lwin, who is organising a fans’ welcoming party, told AFP.
For 11-year-old Ye Yint Htet, among the scores waiting patiently at the pagoda, his new loyalty to the once unheralded side stemmed from their name.
“Foxes follow their prey in group. Likewise, Leicester play in group,” he said.
Like much of Southeast Asia Myanmar is football-mad.
It was once a regional football powerhouse but football struggled for a time, like all other sports, under military rule.
The domestic league was however rebooted under General Than Shwe, who was head of state from 1992-2011. He is believed to have ordered mega-rich businessmen who made fortunes under the junta to stump up millions of dollars for new teams.
Those teams now play in an increasingly competitive Myanmar National League.
Elections last November ushered in the first civilian government for almost half a century.
But the football federation is still led by a media-friendly army “crony” called Zaw Zaw, who forged a mining, banking and hotel empire under the former junta.
In Thailand Leicester held several promotional events, capped by an open-top bus parade – complete with the Premier League trophy – through central Bangkok on Thursday that drew thousands of curious bystanders.
Thailand’s ‘Siamese Foxes’ party as Leicester inch towards Premier League crown
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Reuters
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Sunday, May 22, 2016 – 22:18
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EPL champs Leicester City visit Myanmar
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Largest anti-coup rally as Thais mark 2 years of army takeover
THAILAND – Hundreds of protesters on Sunday marked the second anniversary of Thailand’s latest coup with song, dance, speeches and pro-democracy banners, in the largest show of dissent since the military toppled an elected government.
Under the watch of dozens of police officers, activists young and old gathered peacefully at Bangkok’s Democracy Monument as discontent with the junta resurfaces after two years of relative quiet enforced by the army.
Since their May 22, 2014 power grab, the military has banned all political protest and ramped up prosecutions under draconian sedition and royal defamation laws.
But unhappiness with the coup-makers has mounted across the deep political divide as the economy continues to struggle.
“Today is another year we are standing here to make our voices heard louder to the people that administer this country and who we do not accept,” student leader Rangsiman Rome told AFP.
But with the military firmly in control of the country, there is no immediate sense of a return to the mass demonstrations that marked Thailand’s turbulent last decade.
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AFP, Reuters
Earlier Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government was ousted by the military’s 12th successful putsch since 1932, said the country was “suffering” under army rule.
“Today is the 2nd anniversary of the coup d’etat that removed my government from office,” Yingluck said in a Facebook post uploaded Sunday morning.
“It was the day that the people’s rights and freedom were taken away.” Yingluck was Thailand’s first female prime minister and the sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, who was also toppled in a 2006 coup backed by the royalist establishment.
They despise the clan, accusing Thaksin of poisoning the country with populist and corrupt policies.
But the Shinawatras remain wildly popular among Thailand’s rural and urban working class, especially in the north and east, who praise the family for improving the lot of the poor after decades of neglect by a Bangkok-based elite.
Former army chief turned Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha says the coup was necessary to end more than a decade of political chaos and street protests.
But critics say the takeover was simply the latest attempt to ensure the Shinawatras are excluded from power.
In her statement, Yingluck said Thais are “suffering” as the economy limps along and questioned whether the junta had made good on a vow to heal the political divide.
Downfall of Thai PM Yingluck?
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Reuters, AFP, The Nation/ANN
She urged the junta to swiftly return “the basic rights and freedom that will allow the people to once again choose their own destiny”.
Yingluck was retroactively impeached by the military following their takeover and is on trial for negligence, a charge that could see her jailed for up to ten years.
The military has promised to hold elections in the summer of 2017 but previous election pledges have slipped.
A controversial new junta-crafted constitution will be put to a referendum in August.
Last week the military warned that any rejection of it might result in elections being further delayed.
Analysts say Thailand’s political troubles are exacerbated by the failing health of its 88-year-old monarch Bhumibol Adulyadej as competing elites jostle for power ahead of the succession.
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Sunday, May 22, 2016 – 21:32
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Prince may have died hours before he was found: Report
WASHINGTON – Prince may have died at least six hours before his body was found, and was given fluids intravenously the day before he died, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported, as new details emerged about the singer’s final hours.
Autopsy and toxicology results have yet to be released, but the Star Tribune on Saturday cited sources as saying that Prince grew increasingly agitated following his emergency for an opioid overdose on April 15, despite putting on a calm appearance.
Music legend Prince dead at 57
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Reuters, AFP
Citing sources with knowledge of the investigation, the newspaper said a responding paramedic told staff, law enforcement officers and others at the scene that Prince may have been dead for at least six hours before he was found unresponsive in an elevator at his Paisley Park complex on April 21.
Authorities have said that the pop star was alone at the time of his death, and that they don’t believe suicide or foul play was involved.
Prince’s agitated state led one of his staff members to call someone in New York who had recently worked with the musician, seeking advice, on April 20, according to the Star Tribune.
Later that day, Prince was given an intravenous treatment at a local hospital, the report said, citing a source with knowledge of the investigation.
The newspaper said it was unclear whether Prince was given the intravenous treatment before or after a doctor treating him for withdrawal symptoms made a house call on the evening of April 20.
Purple tribute to Prince
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Sunday, May 22, 2016 – 20:44
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