SINGAPORE: Singapore police are investigating a company linked to two entrepreneurs trying to buy Newcastle United after an accounting firm lodged a police report over unauthorised signatures on the group’s financial statements.
The two Singaporean entrepreneurs, cousins Terence and Nelson Loh, head the Bellagraph Nova Group along with a Chinese business partner.
The group’s bid to buy the English Premier League football club hit a snag after reports emerged last month of manipulated photos purporting to show former US president Barack Obama in a meeting with its founders in Paris, among other inconsistent claims.
Ernst and Young said on Saturday (Sep 19) it did not sign off on the documents of Novena Global Healthcare Group, but served as the auditor of a Singapore subsidiary in 2017.
“Ernst & Young LLP were never the auditors of Novena Global Healthcare Group (incorporated in Cayman Islands),” a spokesperson said in a statement sent to AFP.
The police confirmed that a report was lodged and said they were looking into the matter.
The Novena Global Healthcare Group is owned by the Lohs, according to the Straits Times.
Terence Loh denied any wrongdoing through his lawyer, the newspaper reported.
AFP has reached out to Terence and Nelson Loh for comment.
BN Group’s bid came after a Saudi-backed consortium withdrew its offer to buy Newcastle in late July, following a months-long wait for Premier League approval.
Fans gather outside St James’ Park prior to a 2018 Premier League match between Newcastle United and Chelsea. (File Photo: Matthew Mohan)
The company has blamed “errant individuals” for the doctored Obama photographs.
It has made other questionable claims, including that it is headquartered at a prestigious Paris address.
A visit by an AFP reporter found that the Paris office address belongs to workspace provider Regus. AFP also found that no company named Bellagraph Nova Group or BN Group is registered in France.
The Lohs are also controlling shareholders in professional advisory services firm Axington, which saw a string of resignations from its board after the revelations about Bellagraph Nova surfaced, including of Kirk Wagar, the former US ambassador to Singapore.
SINGAPORE – The man who was kept behind bars for two extra days because of an administrative error in the State Courts said he had tried to distract himself to avoid thinking about the extra hours he was spending in jail.
For those two nights, he had tossed and turned in the jail cell that he shared with three others, Mr Teo Seng Tiong told The Straits Times on Saturday (Sept 19).
On some nights of the fish farmer’s seven week imprisonment term, he said he was kept awake by the incessant whirr of the ventilator fan and the sound his cellmates made as they showered.
But between Aug 22 and 23, it was the fact that he should have been a free man that weighed heavily on the 59-year-old’s mind.
“During the day, I could distract myself by talking to other people but at night, when no one else was awake, I kept thinking about it,” said Mr Teo in Mandarin.
“You keep telling yourself not to and try to sleep, but you can’t stop thinking about it… It was like time wasn’t moving.”
SINGAPORE: The Sembawang God of Wealth Temple will remain closed until further notice after a blaze engulfed its premises on Friday (Sep 18) night.
“No one was hurt during this unfortunate incident,” a post on the temple’s Facebook page read. “Investigations are still ongoing.”
It added that the temple’s God of Wealth Hall and Goddess of Mercy Hall remain intact and that they hope to reopen the temple “as soon as (they) can”.
“Thank you all for your concern and support,” the post read.
Nineteen emergency vehicles and about 60 firefighters were deployed to fight the fire, which broke out on the first floor of the temple about 9.15pm on Friday night.
Screengrab of a video circulating online of a fire that broke out at the Sembawang God of Wealth Temple along Admiralty Street on Sep 18, 2020. (Photo: Facebook/Jerlyn)
By the time firefighters arrived at the scene, the fire was spreading to the second floor, said the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).
The blaze was confined to the first and second floor of the four-storey temple, and was extinguished close to midnight.
“SCDF firefighters were also deployed to a nearby elderly home to assess its condition and ensure the safety of its residents,” the force said in a Facebook post. “As a safety precautionary measure, residents from the home were evacuated by the police.”
The Acacia Home is a welfare home for elderly destitute men.
During the evacuation, an elderly man from the home experienced breathlessness and was assessed by an SCDF paramedic. He was taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, said SCDF.
There were no other reported injuries and the residents returned to their rooms at about 11.45 pm.
In a separate Facebook post, the temple clarified “some misinformation” regarding stray dogs at its premises.
Following the fire, posts on social media claimed that the dogs were kept in cages at the temple and died in the fire as they were unable to escape.
“Our temple has a total of seven stray dogs under our care,” the temple said. “We do not chain up our dogs and they are free to roam the temple compound during the night.”
Three of them died after they were trapped on the second floor when the fire broke out. The remaining four managed to escape and are safe, it added.
Four stray dogs housed at Sembawang God of Wealth Temple survived the fire. (Photo: Facebook/Sembawang God of Wealth Temple)
“We had not originally released this information as we were still waiting (for) confirmation from the Singapore Civil Defence Force,” said the temple.
SINGAPORE – There were 15 new coronavirus cases confirmed as at Saturday noon (Sept 19), taking Singapore’s total to 57,558.
They included one community case, who is a Singaporean, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Saturday.
There were also five imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore.
More details will be announced on Saturday night.
On Friday, there were 11 new coronavirus cases confirmed – the lowest daily figure in over six months since March 12, when there were nine cases.
The sole new case in the community reported on Friday is currently unlinked.
He is a 30-year-old Singaporean man who was confirmed positive on Thursday, said MOH.
There was also one new imported case – a work permit holder who returned from India on Sept 6. She had been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival in Singapore and was tested while serving her notice.
A Giant outlet at Sunshine Place in Choa Chu Kang Avenue 3 and the State Courts were added to the places visited by Covid-19 patients while they were still infectious, MOH said on Friday.
Enjoy a 1-FOR-1 treat* on Venti-sized Chocolate Chip Frappuccino®, Dark Mocha Frappuccino® and Green Tea Frappuccino® from 21 – 24 Sep 2020 (Mon – Thu)
Redeemable when you pay with your Starbucks Card. Check that there’s a reward on your account before heading down as this deal **may only** be for selected cardholders
*Redeemable when you pay with your Starbucks Card. Valid from 21 – 24 Sep 2020 (Mon – Thu) only on Venti-sized Chocolate Chip Frappuccino®, Dark Mocha Frappuccino® and Green Tea Frappuccino® at all Starbucks Singapore stores (except for stores located at Changi Airport including Jewel). Limited to three vouchers per member, each voucher for a one-time use only. Limited to 1 redemption per voucher. Offer is while stocks last. Offer is exclusive to your Starbucks account and is non-transferable. Not valid on Mobile Order & Pay, delivery orders or with any other promotions or privileges. Other terms and conditions apply.
A superb show featuring hit songs performed by some of the best singers from Taiwan and Singapore. Grab your drinks and snacks, and get ready for a wonderful Saturday (Sept 18) night!
This year’s Ren Ci fundraising show is going online at 8pm with a seamless livestream from the two countries.
The Taiwan broadcast is hosted by Alex Niu and Ellen Chu, with performances by ballad prince Jeff Chang, godfather of Mandarin R&B David Tao, veteran powerhouses Huang Pin-yuan and Li E-jun, as well as versatile pop idol Aaron Yan.
Locally, celebrity hosts Marcus Chin and Lin Youyi will be joined by jazz songstress Joanna Dong, a cappella group MICappella, cajon player Arthur Choo, and singer-show producer Dave Fu.
SINGAPORE – Singapore Airlines (SIA) pilots have agreed to take deeper pay cuts of up to 50 per cent so that more of them can stay employed.
This is on top of a 10 per cent cut in the monthly variable component (MVC) of their salaries, The Straits Times has learnt.
With the new agreement reached between SIA and the Air Line Pilots Association – Singapore (Alpa-S), re-employed captains and first officers will see their salaries cut by 60 per cent and 50 per cent respectively, starting Oct 1. This includes the 10 per cent MVC cut.
Other captains will take pay cuts of up to 28.5 per cent, while first officers will take cuts of up to 18.5 per cent, depending on their current pay.
In an internal circular — a copy of which was seen by ST — the pilots were told: “We are pleased to announce that a memorandum of agreement (MOA) was signed with Alpa-S effective Oct 1, 2020 to March 31, 2022 on additional pay cuts to avoid further job losses.”
This latest agreement supersedes the previous one dated Aug 6, said SIA senior vice-president of flight operations Quay Chew Eng and Alpa-S president Kenneth Lai.
SINGAPORE – A fire broke out on Friday (Sept 18) night at the Sembawang God of Wealth Temple.
The fire occurred at 28 Admiralty Street past 9pm on Friday evening, and the blaze appeared to engulf a large portion of the four-storey temple.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the fire at about 9.15pm, upon which it dispatched a fire engine and other fire-fighting assets to the scene.
Plumes of smoke could be seen billowing from the temple as red flames flared in the compound behind the main temple signage in a Facebook livestream posted by Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao at 10.56pm.
The blaze drew around 40 spectators across the canal from the main entrance of the temple.
At about 11.28pm, the flames appeared to be extinguished after having raged for close to two hours. At least one SCDF personnel was later seen on the higher storeys of the temple, with torch in hand.
SINGAPORE: It is barely past 10pm but at the table next to ours, a young man in his early 20s is already somewhat inebriated.
We are at Capital Kitchen, the pop-up restaurant the Zouk Group has converted its chic Capital lounge into just a few months ago.
It is a Thursday night and the space, which can hold 100 people under current social distancing requirements, is running almost at capacity.
The scene is a far cry from the heaving masses that used to pack Zouk’s dance floor but that buzzy, clubby vibe is nevertheless a welcome change from the sombre atmosphere that has descended upon Singapore this year.
Dancey pop and R&B music play at a very sedate volume while coloured lights paint trippy swirls on the overhead screen. We nosh on fried Mala chicken skin and truffle fries. Somewhere in the lounge, someone pops a bottle of champagne.
After accidentally knocking a glass off his table, our neighbouring diner notices us elder millennials glancing over with amusement and gallantly offers our party of four a round of whiskey.
In the days before COVID-19, we probably would have accepted, made small talk and gone on to share our drinks.
But this is 2020 and we are in the midst of a pandemic.
No light sticks at Capital Kitchen, just some cutlery. (Photo: Zouk Singapore)
So, all of us, including our slightly sloshed new “bro”, take great care to maintain a safe distance during our brief exchange, largely gesticulating from afar. We politely decline his offer.
In all honesty, my goal in heading down was to try the elusive Insta-famous Paparch cheesecake on Capital Kitchen’s menu, not meet new people.
But this young man’s friendly gesture in this watered down version of a club reminded me just how integral the social element is to the experience, even if from a distance.
It brought back warm memories of sweeter times. It was such fun to table hop, bump into friends and just be around others.
In my twenties, I used to wake from a disco nap at 10.30pm, just in time to arrive at a club at the fashionable hour of midnight.
Now, by 10.20pm, most of us are already making our way out of Capital Kitchen, politely giving way and moving in an orderly manner, in compliance with the current restrictions.
There was also no jiving on any dance floor that evening, only people nodding to the music in their assigned seats, in clubs that are more dining than discotheque.
Still, if this is what “clubbing” is in this new normal, I will take what I can get.
A HARD-HIT INDUSTRY
It’s unclear what will be left of the nightlife scene after this coronavirus finally blows over. While restrictions have been gradually easing in Phase 2, most dance clubs, discos, karaoke bars and others in the nightlife industry remain shuttered.
Many owners should be lauded for their shift towards F&B and in finding new, creative ways for people to bring the clubbing experience home.
A number of mega clubs, including Marquee and Zouk offer livestreams of their DJ sets. Other venues have rolled out cocktail and drinks delivery services for stay-home imbibing.
Having a drink at Zouk. (Photo: Karen Tee)
Yet, despite such efforts to pivot, a recent poll by the Singapore Nightlife Business Association (SNBA) shows less than 10 per cent would survive in end-October if the closures persist.
The SBNA, which has about 320 members, has therefore raised concerns surrounding the impact of an uncertain, indefinite reopening timeline and requested for help to tide over this period.
They have put forth reasonable suggestions, including quicker clearance for applications for licenses and changes in venue use so more clubs can pivot towards F&B.
Another proposal is to extend current drinking hours until midnight, beyond the current 10.30pm while ensuring customers socialise responsibly.
This suggestion got me thinking: Might it be worth considering how to gingerly open the envelop to give more clubs that have successfully pivoted a stronger fighting chance of surviving this pandemic?
Taking baby steps in that direction would be in line with Singapore’s overall posture to ease restrictions on larger group activities including exhibitions, performances, religious gatherings and weddings in gearing up for an eventual Phase 3 re-opening.
I’m also less certain how much revenue nightlife venues make from delivering drinks and the clubbing experience to homes in general.
Prancing around a living room to a virtual DJ set while wearing headphones so as not to disturb neighbours as my pets silently judge my antics just does not quite cut it.
While it is fun having five friends over for drinks, that Thursday night reminded me of that alchemy of serendipitous encounters (even from a distance) and escapism that clubs offer the young and the restless, which cannot be replicated at home.
TAKE BABY STEPS TOWARDS OPENING
Despite concerns extending operating hours where people are drinking could create new coronavirus clusters, I would argue the recent spate of F&B outlets penalised for flouting various safe management measures during the day show bad behavior isn’t confined to after dark.
Rowdy scenes around the world have given the nightlife industry an unfair rep. While there are occasional cases of bad apples, I see the vast majority of people drinking at numerous establishments here generally do a good job of self-control.
Perhaps the approach could be to come down hard and let enforcement deter violations when restrictions are eased. The series of shutdown orders this past week has sent a strong reminder to operators of the punitive costs of errant actions.
Under COVID-19 regulations, hefty fines, even jailtime, could be imposed on offenders.
Restaurant and club owners know they have to play ball. Most will spare little expense in ensuring customers do not step out of line when the resulting penalties, not to mention being named-and-shamed in news reports, could kill business and lose customers.
Just look at how swiftly the SNBA took charge to establish a code of conduct, after unruly crowd behavior saw the shuttering of one Holland Village eatery.
In my experience, disco-turned-eateries have also stepped up crowd control. While we were at Capital Kitchen, some diners who began blatantly mingling across tables found themselves surrounded by bouncers and ejected from the premises within minutes. Clearly, nobody messes with club security.
Capital Kitchen’s club-like interiors. (Photo: Zouk Singapore)
And there are scores more safeguards to separate groups of people that can be put in place – including table dividers, plastic sheets and even robot bartenders – if we do extend operating hours.
MISSING THOSE DAYS OF OLD
Everyone understands the need for a cautious and gradual reopening, especially businesses that involve a lot of social interaction. It is in our collective interest to ensure infections don’t spike, and we don’t inadvertently shoot ourselves in the foot and have to re-impose restrictions again.
But it would be a shame if the pandemic puts a permanent end to our nightlife scene altogether, should more businesses be forced to shut down because of they cannot wait out this indefinite limbo.
Clubbing in Singapore has a shared experience across generations.
Gen X-ers still reminisce about the now defunct Sparks, Venom and China Black discos in the 90s, while millennials like myself would throng the likes of Butter Factory and Filter at Nanson Road in the noughties and Gen Zs have a soft spot for Cherry Discotheque and Canvas Club.
We still look back on those halcyon days with some nostalgia, imagining we might return one day to relive such carefree occasions again.
TAKE BABY STEPS TOWARDS OPENING
It may be a long while until clubs can fully reopen when close body contact and socialising with strangers are the antithesis of a safe reopening. Perhaps only the mass distribution of a vaccine will allow any form of communal dancing to be resumed.
But can we push the envelop safely – for that day when the world is finally ready to boogie again?
For now, the memory of that tipsy youth who offered us whisky from afar will have to do.
It’s not quite clubbing but it is clubbing in a coronavirus situation, which certainly means something in these times of social distancing.
CHRISTCHURCH: More than 3.3 billion people live in the tropics, representing about 40 per cent of the world’s population.
Despite some areas of affluence, such as Singapore, the tropics are also home to about 85 per cent of the world’s poorest people and are therefore particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change.
The tropics are expected to experience rising temperatures and changes to rainfall, and the question is whether this could make this region uninhabitable. How would this happen?
Humans regulate their body temperature in warm conditions through sweating. The sweat evaporates and cools the skin.
But if conditions are humid, sweating and evaporation are much less effective. Humans can survive and function in quite high temperatures if humidity is low, but as humidity increases our ability to function decreases rapidly.
This effect is measured by a heat stress index which shows the apparent temperature you feel under different relative humidity conditions.
From a human health point of view, the wet bulb temperature is critical. This is the temperature a thermometer covered in a wet cloth would measure, and it reflects the maximum amount of cooling that can be achieved by evaporation.
High wet bulb temperatures are more problematic to human health than high absolute temperatures. Wet bulb temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius are life-threatening because they cause hyperthermia, which means the body cannot cool down and the internal body temperature exceeds 40 degrees Celsius.
Clothes drying in the sun during a spell of hot weather in Singapore. (File photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
Climate modelling predictions used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the period from 2080-2100 suggest warming in the tropics of about 1.6 degrees Celsius under mid-range emissions scenarios and up to 3.3 degrees Celsius under high emissions scenarios, with error margins of about 0.5 degrees Celsius on both predictions.
Different parts of the world respond in different ways to warming from greenhouse gas emissions. The projected warming in the tropics represents about 40 per cent of the expected temperature rise in the Arctic.
High-latitude regions – far north or south of the Equator – warm more rapidly than the global average because excess heat in the tropics creates a temperature and pressure gradient. This drives heat up to higher elevations and higher latitudes through an atmospheric circulation called the Hadley cell.
The stronger the gradient, the more heat is exported.
There is one additional factor: Urbanisation. Singapore is a good place to look at actual climate change in the tropics.
Records from Singapore indicate temperatures have increased by 1.1 degrees Celsius over 42 years to 2014. This is nearly twice the average global rate of warming over recent decades and is opposite to expectations.
The difference appears to be due to a heat island effect caused by the city itself. This is important because changes in land use amplify background global climate change and put tropical cities at greater risk of extreme heat.
As populations are concentrated in cities, this increases the risk to human health. The mean average temperature for Singapore is about 27 degrees Celsius, whereas Jakarta in Indonesia is slightly warmer.
File photo of the business district in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 2, 2019. (Photo: REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan)
At the scale of predicted mean annual temperature change, neither of these cities would become uninhabitable. But even a small temperature increase would make life more challenging.
This is made worse in at least some parts of the tropics, because total rainfall is increasing, suggesting a long-term rise in humidity. For example, average rainfall in Singapore increased by more than 500mm from 2,192mm in 1980 to 2,727mm in 2014.
People working outdoors are at higher risk, as are vulnerable populations, including the elderly. Under the IPCC’s high-emission trajectory, heat-related deaths in Jakarta in August are expected to rise from about 1,800 in 2010 to nearly 27,000 in 2050.
Even allowing for a significant increase in elderly people as the Indonesian population ages, this means about 15,000 excess deaths in this month.
Estimates under high-emission predictions for the tropics and mid-latitudes suggest about a 40 per cent decline in the ability to undertake manual work during the warmest month by 2050.
These impacts will be stronger in the seasonally wet tropics (such as the Northern Territory of Australia), where more extreme warming is expected than in the equatorial zone.
Predictions for Darwin, in northern Australia, suggest an increase in days with temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius from 11 days a year in 2015 to an average of 43 days under the mid-range emission scenario by 2030 and an average of 111 (range 54-211) days by 2090.
Under the higher emission scenario, an average of 265 days above 35 degrees Celsius could be reached by 2090.
In summary, while absolute temperatures are expected to rise more slowly in the tropics when compared with higher latitudes and polar regions, the combination of heat and rising humidity will make life challenging, but not impossible.
James Shulmeister is Professor at School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Canterbury. This commentary first appeared on The Conversation.
Starbucks store 
