SINGAPORE – The proposed opposition group, which has yet to register its alliance, is hoping Dr Tan Cheng Bock’s Progress Singapore Party (PSP) will split the People’s Action Party vote in the next election which is due by April 2021.
Speaking to the media on Sunday (Jan 19), Mr Tan Jee Say, who leads the Singaporeans First party (SingFirst), described Dr Tan’s role as “just like (how) Mahathir split the Malay vote in Malaysia”.
In the 2018 general election in Malaysia, Malay voters were split three ways between the Umno-led Barisan Nasional, Parti Islam SeMalaysia and the Pakatan Harapan coalition led by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Mr Tan said: “We hope that Dr Tan will not split the opposition vote, and will just split the PAP vote, because… that is his value-add (for the opposition).
“The opposition vote is already there, 30 to 40 per cent, with or without Dr Tan and PSP.”
The Straits Times broke the news earlier this month that SingFirst, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), People’s Power Party (PPP) and Reform Party (RP) were planning to form a four-party alliance, reducing the crowded field of 11 opposition parties to eight.
CABA, La Union: Wilted wreaths stood outside the Nucos family home in the quiet seaside town of Caba, as friends and family gathered to quietly mourn the death of Lucky Plaza crash victim Arlyn Picar Nucos.
One of the six victims involved in an accident at Lucky Plaza last December, Ms Nucos was laid to rest on Sunday (Jan 19) at her hometown in the province of La Union, Philippines.
The funeral of Arlyn Nucos being held in the quiet town of Caba, La Union this morning. Arlyn was one of the two victims in the Lucky Plaza accident on the 29 Dec, which also claimed the life of Abigail Leste. pic.twitter.com/i2rzdOdksX
The car crash at Lucky Plaza also claimed the life of Ms Abigail Leste, and injured four others – including Ms Nucos’ older sister Arceli. All of the victims were Filipinos living and working in Singapore.
Ms Nucos’ body was repatriated to the Philippines on Jan 2, with a wake held for her spanning over two weeks.
Mourners at the funeral service for Arlyn Nucos in Caba, La Union on Jan 19, 2020. Ms Nucos was one of the two people who died in the Lucky Plaza accident on Dec 29, 2019. (Photo: Matthew Mohan)
Speaking to CNA, Ms Nucos’ youngest sister Alice said the family were still coming to terms with her death.
“We have been mourning for three weeks and we’re still coping with … the death of our sister,” she said.
Arlyn is survived by three siblings – her older brother Reynaldo and her younger sister Alice. The siblings’ oldest sister Arceli, remains in the hospital in Singapore recovering from injuries. pic.twitter.com/6W26NQCAQm
At the church service for Arlyn Nucos. Her sister Alice described her as a “friendly” and “jolly” person. She said of her sister: “When she’s here, we would talk even at night time, non-stop. She’s full of stories. Every now and then we would laugh.” pic.twitter.com/fNeGfI0ftp
Describing her sister as “jolly” and “friendly”, Ms Alice, a schoolteacher, said the two shared a close relationship.
“Every time I had a problem, she was the person I would lean on. She helped us with any problem,” said Ms Alice.
“When she’s here, we would talk even at night time, non-stop. She’s full of stories.”
Reynaldo Nucos waits outside the church where the funeral service of his sister Arlyn is to be held in Caba, La Union on Jan 19, 2020. Ms Nucos was one of the two people who died in the Lucky Plaza accident on Dec 29, 2019. (Photo: Matthew Mohan)
According to Ms Nucos’ older brother Reynaldo, Ms Arceli is currently recovering in hospital and is undergoing rehabilitation.
The family hope to be able to visit her soon and said that she will return to the Philippines after she is discharged.
She has no plans to continue working in Singapore.
Shortly after 8am, friends and family paid their final respects, before Ms Nucos’ casket was loaded into a hearse. More than 60 friends and family members trailed the hearse, some wearing white T-shirts bearing images of Ms Nucos.
Arlyn Nucos’ brother Reynaldo walks behind her coffin in Caba, La Union on Jan 19, 2020. Ms Nucos was one of the two people who died in the Lucky Plaza accident on Dec 29, 2019. (Photo: Matthew Mohan)
As curious onlookers filmed the spectacle, Ms Alice and her brother Reynaldo, 53, held on wordlessly to the back of the hearse.
“We grew up in a poor family. My mother was just a worker, and my father was a fisherman and farmer,” Ms Alice said. “When my father managed to get fish, my mother would sell it to earn money.
“My two sisters didn’t finish their college. My sister Arlyn was a high school graduate and my sister Arceli did two years in college.
“They stopped because of poverty and they wanted to help our parents earn money.”
The remittances from Arceli, Arlyn and their brother Reynaldo had helped to pay for the family home, for medication for their late father as well as for Ms Alice’s college fees.
Emotions scenes at the funeral of Arlyn Nucos in Caba, La Union on Jan 19, 2020. Ms Nucos was one of the two people who died in the Lucky Plaza accident on Dec 29, 2019. (Photo: Matthew Mohan)
Churchgoers packed the local church to pay their respects to Ms Nucos, as her casket was placed in the centre of the sanctuary.
After a short service was held, attendees laid flowers on her casket, many choking back tears as they embraced Ms Nucos’ family members.
Ms Nucos was later laid to rest at a nearby cemetery.
Along with her brother Reynaldo and sister Arceli, Arlyn left to work abroad to provide for her family. The remittances from the three siblings was used for their late father’s medical treatment, to pay for the family home, as well as to support the education of relatives. pic.twitter.com/sdQGAi3xZX
The Nucos family has been assisted by a number of organisations including the Centre for Domestic Employees in Singapore and the Overseas Workers Welfare Association in the Philippines.
SINGAPORE: Even the furore over Ricky Gervais’ commentary as emcee at the Golden Globes could not overshadow the excitement at having Netflix draw shoulder-to-shoulder with the giants of old Hollywood.
Audience disappointment at Netflix not winning big at the Globes ceremony could not detract from the growing recognition that they are a force to be reckoned with.
In fact, Netflix and Apple were nominated in a wide range of coveted categories from Best Film and Best Director to Best actor, Best actress and Best supporting cast.
This bodes well for Netflix in particular and promises a landslide win for the formerly patronised business model: Streaming services.
STEADY RISE OF AWARD NOMINATIONS AND WINS SINCE 2014
Netflix’s plethora of nominations marks a steady rise from their first appearance on the Golden Globes’ circuit with one 2014 win for television series House of Cards’ Robin Wright for Best Actress and Kevin Spacey for Best Actor the following year.
In 2017, Peter Morgan was awarded Best Television Series for The Crown while the show’s star Claire Foy took out Best Actress that same year.
Netflix’s victories at the Golden Globes have extended beyond television series to movies, best remembered when it won a double hit with Best Foreign Language Film for Roma and Best Director for Alfonso Cuarón in 2019.
In Singapore for the first time is House of Cards’ Robin Wright, alongside Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. (Photo: Netflix)
The nominations in and of themselves heralds a new future in entertainment for the streaming giant.
Both Netflix productions dysfunctional divorce drama Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johanssen, and tough guy epic The Irishman directed by Martin Scorsese, were cult favourites, despite not winning.
And there’s more ground for Netflix to gain. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences just announced a record-breaking 24 nominations for Netflix, more than any other production house this year, and a huge surge from the 15 in 2019 and 8 in 2018.
Netflix stands in good stead for Oscar wins, given Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma stunning international audiences with 12 wins last year, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Cinematography and Best Original Screenplay.
These unprecedented numbers attest to the astronomical rise of Netflix’s subscriber-based platform model, which has drawn meretricious attention from many other industry-coveted award committees, and speaks to the sheer volume of critically acclaimed films produced and world-renowned directors bagged.
A scene from Roma. (Photo: Roma)
Netflix has also been hailed for cutting out the middleman and having faith in the ideas of risky filmmakers and out-of-the-box televisual fare.
A NEW FUTURE IN ENTERTAINMENT
Since the late 1990s, Hollywood has taken a cavalier approach to the idea of live-streaming as a platform for serious film and television drama. But time and technology have changed all that.
In fact, the nominations lists this year featured a great many artists funded through streaming networks: Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, nominated for their performances in The Two Popes, while Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston headlined Apple TV’s The Morning Show, just to name a few.
There is, of course, a long history of the relationship between old studio Hollywood and online streaming sites, which involved Hollywood initially ignoring the technology then eventually unsuccessfully attempting to distribute films through the Internet.
More often than not, Hollywood’s prejudice was based on their refusal to alter tried-and-true business formulas, an industry where business decisions are often based on personal relationships.
An unfortunate side-consequence of this obstinacy was that some truly great filmmakers, such as Scorsese and Baumbach, turned to streaming services for their initial revenue.
The 76th Venice Film Festival – Screening of the film Marriage Story in competition – Red carpet arrivals – Venice, Italy, August 29, 2019 – Actors Adam Driver, Laura Dern and Scarlett Johansson, director Noah Baumbach and producer David Heyman pose. (Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi)
WHY NETFLIX HAS STAYED AHEAD OF THE GAME
Since the 1990s, seismic shifts in the technological distribution of shows and movies have disrupted the film industry, which have come to a head with Netflix’s rise.
Netflix’s subscription-based streaming service includes an escalating rate of in-house productions, which have seen their popularity surged ahead.
Netflix knows their audience segments, they know how to locate each, what each watch most and they are financing some fine film and television fare such as China’s Us and Them, Iran’s A Separation and the outstanding documentary The Square from Egypt with practised discernment.
In 2002, Netflix subscribers reached 1 million rising to 5.6 million by 2006 then 14 million in 2010. By 2020, Netflix boasts over 148 million paid subscriptions worldwide.
Netflix have proved that our entertainment habits have changed vastly in the last ten years and can cater to that growing need both technologically and artistically.
Even the announced 10 to 20 per cent increase in Netflix subscription fees in 2020 in Singapore barely drew a squeak, as Singapore viewers expressed a general willingness to pay more for their favourite TV shows.
S$17 a month sounds completely reasonable, since it also offers some of the latest movies, and we can share the subscription with other family members, the logic from some viewers went.
On-demand internet streaming media provider, Netflix, on a laptop screen. (Photo: AFP/Jonathan Nackstrand)
In a year where Singaporeans will grapple with raised public transport costs, utility bills and for some, new premiums for disability insurance, the muted response on this front speaks volumes.
THE AGE OF NETFLIX
The fact is Netflix is providing fresh television audiences for willing producers. Since 2007, Netflix spent US$12 billion on a wide range of programming.
Part of Netflix’s formula for success lies in narrow-casting. Niche shows like Fresh Off the Boat and Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and feature films of Indian auteur Mira Nair found audience success through Netflix.
Stand-up comedy has been turbocharged. Singapore Social also made a splash here.
But it has also won big in broadcast. Scorsese himself, sporting decades of brave work in collaboration with the great Robert de Niro, notes that he tried unsuccessfully to raise traditional funding for six years for The Irishman and consequently turned to Netflix – as did House of Cards before him.
The way The Irishman was presented truly represents the triumph of the Netflix model: That the sprawling plot did not need to be watched in one sitting, but could be viewed over several nights via the streaming service.
The film also adopts more televisual codes than cinematic, allowing viewers to appreciate the genius of the deNiro-Scorsese team centred within a cast of brilliantly twisted crims whose illuminations of life’s enthralling, hard-boiled moments represent a landslide of operatic criminality.
Director Martin Scorsese and cast members Al Pacino and Robert De Niro pose as they arrive for the screening of The Irishman during the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. (File photo: REUTERS/Henry Nicholls)
Netflix, as an audience-guaranteed platform, allows filmmakers to develop their cinema and television for identifiable audiences.
It knows this too, one reason why Netflix will increase subscription rates globally further to counter-balance their debts, which amounted to US$21.9 billion in 2017
Netflix’s strategic directions must change in 2020 to remain in healthy competition with other emerging platforms. By 2018, Netflix ran themselves into a further US$2 billion debt for funding new productions.
THE AUDIENCE WINS
So forget the poor showing at the Golden Globe awards, because industry recognition through nomination might have been enough to secure triumph for Netflix’s artistic and business model and boost its ability to raise subscription rates.
But the race for more gold is still on, as viewers and filmmakers look to the 92nd Academy Awards on Feb 10.
According to Vox’s Alissa Wilkinson, The Globes’ Best Actor and Actress winners tend to be 90 per cent aligned with the Oscars, while Best Director and Best Picture awards predict less than 50 per cent.
But as CNBC entertainment correspondent Sarah Witten notes, the Globes are no barometer predicting the Academy Awards especially in the latter’s favouring of dramas over comedies.
Ian Dixon is an associate professor at Nanyang Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, whose research focuses on film theory, celebrity and cultural studies. Ian is also a professional screenwriter and published novelist.
SINGAPORE: Three people have died in workplace accidents since the start of the new year, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Sunday (Jan 19), as it called for companies to ensure a safe working environment.
“This does not augur well for workplace safety and health,” said MOM.
“With the festive period approaching, some firms may ramp up work activities to meet deadlines. MOM reminds all companies of the need to review work practices and ensure that the necessary safeguards are in place. All workers deserve a safe working environment and to return home safe and healthy to their loved ones,” it added.
Some companies failed to cover or guard openings and open sides with effective guardrails or barriers, posing a risk of falling from height. (Photo: Ministry of Manpower)
CRUSHED BY GAS CYLINDERS
In the first incident this year, a worker was crushed by a toppled pallet of gas cylinders on Jan 8.
According to the Workplace Safety & Health Council (WSH Council), the accident happened when a group of workers was installing piles using a crawler crane at a construction site.
During the works, the crane operator turned the crane and a pallet of gas cylinders beside it toppled, landing on a worker nearby.
The worker was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
In the second incident, a worker was hit by a runner that had fallen from a formwork structure, said MOM.
The WSH Council said that four workers had been tasked to shift a formwork structure on Jan 11.
However, while they were moving the formwork structure, a runner fell from the top of the formwork structure and struck one of the workers.
He died in hospital from his injuries.
In the third incident, a worker fell from a tugboat into the sea, said MOM.
One of the top contraventions found during inspections was in relation to unsafe scaffolds that were found without toe boards and guardrails to prevent workers from falling from height. (Photo: Ministry of Manpower)
SPATE OF FATAL WORKPLACE ACCIDENTS
The workplace fatal injury rate has declined by more than 75 per cent over the past 14 years, from 4.9 per 100,000 workers in 2004 to 1.2 per 100,000 workers in 2018.
The government aims to bring the figure down to 1.0 per 100,000 workers within the next 10 years.
In November alone, however, nine workers lost their lives on the job, prompting MOM to step up enforcement of workplaces, targeting high-risk industries such as construction, marine, as well as manufacturing.
One month into the two-month enforcement blitz, MOM has completed 230 out of a targeted 400 inspections, said MOM on Sunday.
One of the top contraventions found during inspections was in relation to unsafe scaffolds that did not have toe boards and guardrails to prevent workers from falling.
Some companies also failed to cover or guard openings with effective guardrails or barriers, posing a risk of falling from height, said MOM.
During the inspections, MOM inspectors also found that some workplaces did not provide workers with a means of access to their work area, leaving them to find their own way in, said MOM.
In all, stop-work orders were issued to four workplaces for hazards that posed imminent danger to workers.
In force for at least three weeks, the orders will only be lifted after the firms rectify the lapses and improve their workplace safety and health management systems, said MOM.
“We will sustain the momentum of our enforcement operation, taking a tough stance against those who put workers at risk,” it added.
SINGAPORE – Republic Polytechnic part-time student Muhammad Musharraf who celebrated his birthday just two weeks ago died when his motorcycle collided with a lorry last Sunday (Jan 12).
Mr Musharraf, 25, who also worked as a personal trainer, was heading to Johor Baru to get necessities for his family when the accident happened.
He was flung sideways off his motorbike in lane one and landed in lane four while riding on the Pan Island Expressway after the Upper Jurong Road exit on Sunday at around 10pm. He was taken conscious to the National University Hospital (NUH).
The 26-year-old male lorry driver was arrested for drink-driving and dangerous driving causing death, the police said.
Around 11.35pm that night, doctors told the family to go to NUH immediately as Mr Musharraf was in a critical condition, his sister Salimah Razak told The Straits Times.
Ms Salimah, 21, and her mother reached the accident and emergency department at 12.05am while her 29-year-old brother, who was living elsewhere with his wife, arrived shortly after.
SINGAPORE – A 52-year-old man with pneumonia who had travelled to Wuhan has been admitted for further assessment and treatment, bringing the number of suspected cases identified here of a mysterious viral illness to six.
His condition was stable and he had been isolated as a precautionary measure, said the Ministry of Health on Saturday (Jan 18), noting that he had not visited the Huanan seafood wholesale market associated with the cluster of pneumonia in Wuhan.
The other five patients have been cleared of having the virus.
“MOH will continue to monitor the situation closely,” said the ministry.
“As medical practitioners are on the lookout for cases with pneumonia who have recently returned from Wuhan, Singapore is likely to see more suspect cases that will need to be investigated for possible links to the Wuhan cluster.”
SINGAPORE: When Abhishek Agrawal greets fruit-seller Lau Ah Keow with his usual “good afternoon aunty!” in Mandarin, she no longer bats an eyelid.
She smiles instead at the 31-year-old from India who speaks her mother tongue with almost-native intonation.
And, when he struggles to find the Mandarin term for passionfruit, she patiently enunciates “bai xiang guo”, as he repeats carefully after her.
Some days, Abhishek, a tech entrepreneur, hangs out at their stall, chatting with Lau and her husband about their lives in Mandarin – they speak very little English.
“When I first heard him speak Chinese, I was so surprised,” said Lau, 65. “Not bad, it’s very clear and accurate. He comes every day to support me.”
It’s an unexpected acquaintanceship that has sprung out of Abhishek’s intrigue with Singaporean culture ever since he arrived in 2011, and his desire to form “deeper connections” with locals.
This spurred him to step outside his comfort zone, in more ways than one.
Abhishek learnng the Mandarin names of fruit from stallholder Lau Ah Keow.
“To be honest, I have noticed some people who have stayed in Singapore longer than I have, but have not really assimilated well, who stay pretty much with their own community,” he said.
“But my mother always encouraged us to be open-minded, go out and talk to everybody.”
GETTING OUT OF A VACUUM
This was easier said than done when Abhishek, who hails from Bilaspur in central India, arrived nine years ago as a biomedical engineering student at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). It was his first time in a foreign country.
“I didn’t have many friends,” he said. “I was just by myself doing project work, not reaching out, not really integrating.”
But realising how much of a “vacuum” he was in those first few months, he started looking for ways to volunteer. He reached out to organisations for opportunities to tutor children from vulnerable families, deliver charity meals, and clean up the homes of elderly folks living alone.
Doing volunteer work was his way of reaching outside his social bubble. (Photo courtesy of Abhishek)
At school, supportive laboratory mates helped him adapt to Singapore, and expanded his palate to local food like chilli crab. “For six months I’d lived on prata and curry. I didn’t know there was chicken rice and other local dishes.”
Still, Abhishek felt on the fringe in some ways. For instance: Local traditions like lion dance and Chinese opera performances he’d witnessed in his HDB estate puzzled him.
“Sometimes, in group discussions, friends would speak Mandarin with each other and I couldn’t catch head or tail of it,” he added.
But rather than feeling sorry for himself, Abhishek saw this as a barrier to break through. “Feelings don’t yield results, your effort does,” he said, ever the practical engineer.
He was fascinated by Chinese customs and culture he saw in everyday life. (Photo courtesy of Abhishek)
THAT LANGUAGE CONNECTION
His solution? To learn Mandarin. Shortly after he finished his thesis and found work with an oil and gas company, he attended Chinese lessons for six months at SGP International Management Academy (SIMA).
The complex new language was more frustrating than he’d expected (“If someone could just take the four tones out of Mandarin, life would be so much easier,” he quipped in lament).
But, said his teacher Liu Jing: “He was very hardworking and eager to learn. He asked questions often.” She used songs to help students learn, and Abhishek grew to love belting out legendary Teresa Teng love songs.
Teacher Liu Jing found him an eager student.
He also found unexpected help from strangers. “When I travelled on the MRT, I’d have my Mandarin textbook in hand,” he recalled. “Some people would take an interest, come over and try to teach me.”
He enthusiastically practised his fledgling Mandarin with colleagues or hawkers. “The first thing they want to know is, can I really speak it – or did I learn this one line to try to impress them? So they’d cross-examine me.”
“I would say there are two phases to my life in Singapore: Before and after learning Mandarin,” he added. “I made deeper connections because we could converse.”
His annotations in Hindi in his Chinese textbook.
Abhishek is game to delve into Malay or Tamil next. He already has a smattering of Hokkien and Malay words like “kiasu”, “jialat” “boleh” and “sedikit”.
“I’m ready to move on to another language and understand another culture,” he said.
MORE THAN A LANDLORD
But reaching out goes both ways – sometimes it takes somebody else to reach back.
WATCH: Breaking down barriers (4:58)
For six years as a tenant, Abhishek had stayed with Indian and Malay families. In 2017, his landlord then died suddenly, and he was looking for a new place to rent. He hoped to live with a Chinese family this time.
However, at least half the agents he approached asked about his race, he said. Their clients, he was told, were not keen on an Indian tenant.
One evening, he was introduced to a prospective landlord, 77-year-old Richard Huang. When they met at the latter’s four-room flat, the old man greeted Abhishek with “namaste”, his hands pressed together in the customary Hindi greeting.
“I was pleasantly surprised… His kindness touched me.”
Richard Huang showing Abhishek photos from his latest travels. He always brings back souvenirs for his young tenant.
They hit it off, and Abhishek described how “Uncle” Richard became more than just a landlord and somewhat of a father figure.
They talked about “anything under the sun”. When the retiree went on one of his many trips around the world, he’d bring back food or mementoes for his young flatmate. “That’s something a family member would do,” Abhishhek said.
The one thing that made Richard nag like an exasperated parent sometimes, was Abhishek’s absentmindedness; for example, “he’ll wash his clothes and then leave them in the washing machine,” said the retiree.
Abhishek buys ice cream to share with ‘Uncle’ as they chat about their lives.
But Richard notes the long hours Abhishek works and how he’s always tired. “I know he’s a very busy man, so I’ll help him hang his clothes.”
ADDING VALUE TO SINGAPORE
The reason Abhishek is so busy these days? His start-up, Kinexcs, which is aiming to launch its key product this year – a wearable device to help patients recovering from knee surgeries.
Called KIMIA, it helps to remotely monitor and analyse their rehabilitation progress. It means patients could soon not have to travel to the therapist’s office for each session, which can be inconvenient for the elderly.
The company is in talks with local hospitals to pilot KIMIA, and it could start benefitting patients here from around October.
KIMIA by Kinexcs helps to remotely monitor and analyse a patient’s progress, which can help with their rehabilitation after knee surgery.
For Abhishek, there’s a personal dimension to this. “I’ve seen my father struggle with a spinal problem for 25 years,” he said. “I really wanted to build something that can add value to people’s lives.”
Abhishek was working in NTU as a research associate when he met the Singaporean mentor who would become his business partner, Jagjit Singh.
They had “great chemistry” and were both interested in wearable technology. Between September 2014 and February 2015, the pair participated in six hackathons – and won five. Fired up, they co-founded Kinexcs, a medical technology company.
In 2017 alone, their start-up attracted some S$580,000 in investments, including from global venture capital firm SOSV and SGInnovate.
Of the eight full-time members of the Kinexcs team, five are Singaporeans and one a Permanent Resident (PR). “I hope that I can contribute back to Singapore by creating local jobs and economic benefit,” said Abhishek, who has applied for PR.
At a Kinexcs breakfast team meeting, Abhishek has his favourite kopitiam breakfast of half-boiled egg with soy sauce.
In 2016 the company received an offer from a Colorado-based start-up accelerator to move to the United States. Abhishek rejected it – he has no doubts where he wants Kinexcs to be based.
“Singapore offers the best resources, a reliable and straightforward business environment to come up with a new idea, incubate it and take it to the global market,” he said. He also spoke highly of NTU and the National University of Singapore, whose professors the company received guidance from in its early days.
Kinexcs plans to expand into the Australian and US markets in the next couple of years. This would be a dream come true for Abhishek, who left his hometown at the age of 22.
“I could pursue what I wanted to do in India as well, but the level of people that you would work with, the reputation in the field, the scale of opportunity – Singapore really gives you that international platform,” he said.
This story by CNA Insider was done in collaboration with Gov.sg.
SINGAPORE – A 34-year old maid was arrested on Friday (Jan 17) for voluntarily causing grievous hurt with a dangerous weapon.
She was charged on Saturday.
The police said they were alerted to the incident on Friday at around 11.10am by the victim who said that the maid had assaulted her using a knife at her residence along Commonwealth Close.
The maid was arrested on Friday at Changi Airport Terminal 1, with the help of ground enquiries and CCTV footage.
An offense of voluntarily causing grievous hurt with a dangerous weapon is punishable with an imprisonment for life, or for a term which may extend to 15 years, and offenders shall also be liable to a fine or caning. Women cannot be caned.
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
SINGAPORE – Trace amounts of hydrocarbons – the kind of compounds used in anti-mosquito oil – have been found in some residents’s tap points in Ang Mo Kio, national water agency PUB said on Friday (Jan 17).
A resident living on the sixth floor of Block 635 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6 had told PUB on Monday that his tap water gave off an oil-like odour.
The blocks’ rooftop water tanks, which helped supply water to flats from the sixth to the 12th floors, were flushed on Monday and Tuesday by Ang Mo Kio Town Council.
Tests showed that while the water quality from the mains was good, the tap points contained amounts of hydrocarbons.
Hydrocarbons – compounds made of carbon and hydrogen – are the main components of petroleum and crude oil.
Ang Mo Kio Town Council engaged a plumber to wash and chlorinate the water tanks to remove any remaining traces of hydrocarbons on Wednesday.
PUB provided residents with water bags during the flushing and cleaning operations, which disrupted water supply to flats.
JOHOR BARU – The Johor Immigration Department expects to see a more traffic at the Causeway and Second Link in conjunction with Chinese New Year.
State director Baharuddin Tahir said the department took several steps to handle the rise in traffic by freezing the leave of its personnel.
“There will usually be a rise in traffic between Malaysia and Singapore throughout the festive season.
Baharuddin said the department was also working with other agencies to ensure smoother travel for travellers at both checkpoints, especially between Jan 23 and 26.
He also said the department will open all 77 car and bus lanes at the Causeway, and 48 lanes at the Second Link on festive period.
“Travellers must also check if their passport is still valid to avoid hassle at the checkpoints.
“Ensure your vehicles are in good condition as any breakdown will create a massive jam,” he added.
Bernama said Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) also expected heavy traffic during Chinese New Year.
