A 22-year-old student from Hong Kong fell to her death from the 10th storey of her dormitory on Monday morning (Sept 14).
She was found lying motionless at the foot of dwell Selegie at about 5.04am and was pronounced dead on the scene by a paramedic, the Singapore Civil Defence Force confirmed.
Speaking with Lianhe Zaobao, a student staying at the dormitory explained that as most people were attending online classes, few would have been awake when the incident happened. As he and his roommates were asleep, none of them was aware of what had happened.
“It was only after I woke up and saw police cars and an ambulance did I realise something had happened.”
According to a cleaner working at the dormitory, male and female students are separated into different levels and are generally grouped according to their schools.
The deceased, who was not identified, was a student at Lasalle College of the Arts, which is located a rough five to 10 minutes walk away from the dormitory.
Those itching to be on a plane again may have rejoiced at the chance to take flight with Singapore Airlines (SIA) again, after reports that SIA might launch three-hour ‘flights to nowhere’ surfaced.
However, several environmental groups in Singapore have expressed concern that this would lead to unnecessary carbon emissions, thereby contributing to the ongoing climate crisis.
Said environmental activism group SG Climate Rally in a statement on their website on Sept 14: “It encourages carbon-intensive travel for no good reason” and “it is merely a stop-gap measure that distracts from the policy and value shifts necessary to mitigate the climate crisis”.
The group said it sympathises with on-ground SIA workers who have experienced reduced wages and jobs cuts and instead urged SIA executives and policymakers to pivot towards more “sustainable and equitable alternatives”.
Mosquitoes may be the bane of many Singaporeans’ lives but Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong didn’t bat an eyelid when he got up close and personal with a scourge of them on Tuesday (Sept 15).
Documenting his visit to the Environmental Health Institute on his Instagram Stories, PM Lee shared a behind-the-scenes look at the facility, which produces Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes to fight dengue.
As part of his visit, he got a close-up look at the mosquitoes and had a go at a nifty-looking mozzie launcher. PHOTOS: Instagram/ leehsienloongHe even sacrificed his arm for science, sticking it into an enclosure full of Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes.
However, the mozzies did not seem to be taking the bait, prompting PM Lee to quip: “I’m not tasty enough!”
Of course, the insects’ lack of interest probably has more to do with the fact that male mosquitoes do not bite.
The coronavirus pandemic has created a major upheaval in all of our lives – more so for some.
Which is why Taiwanese singer-actor Aaron Yan hopes the upcoming Singapore Ren Ci Hospital Online Charity Show this Saturday (Sept 19) will cheer up Singaporeans and encourage them to lend a hand to those grappling with the double whammy of ailing health and dried-up income.
In an exclusive interview, he shared with AsiaOne his unusual perception of hard times.
SINGAPORE: Full-time national servicemen enlisted with the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) since October 2019 have been using ergonomic “high-cut” helmets designed to improve combat effectiveness.
The new helmet also allows better integration with other equipment, such as communication headsets and night vision devices, said the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) on Wednesday (Sep 16) in response to queries from CNA.
“The new helmet is part of the Army’s efforts to leverage on science and technology to provide ergonomically designed equipment to enhance the combat effectiveness for every soldier,” said MINDEF.
The high-cut helmet used during an outdoor combat exercise. (Photo: Facebook/Basic Military Training Centre)
Conventional SAF helmets used during a rifle range exercise. (Photo: Facebook/Basic Military Training Centre)
The new helmet is just one piece of equipment the SAF is looking at to improve soldier performance. CNA previously reported that the Army is trialling a titanium exoskeleton to reduce stress on soldiers carrying heavy loads.
The US Special Operations Command uses a similar high-cut helmet.
According to US military website SOFREP, defence equipment manufacturer Gentex Corporation was awarded a US$95 million (S$129 million) contract in 2019 to supply the US Special Operations Command with “super high-cut” helmets.
While the helmet’s high-cut design means it is lighter and can accommodate more communications and hearing protection systems, it also offers less protection on the side, the report said.
The US’ helmets retail at about US$1,860 on Gentex’s website.
Being called “OCD” is a term that warehouse manager Frederick Chan is accustomed to hearing. In fact, it’s what he often uses as well to describe himself.
His 3-bedroom flat is impeccably spotless and orderly, and a peek into his wardrobe will reveal uniformly-folded T-shirts and his work attire hung neatly on the clothes rack.
And by neatly, we mean clothes on identical black hangers hung equidistant from each other. And it is done instinctively, without the use of any kind of measuring tool. His rack of checkered shirts that he uses for work, all neatly hung. PHOTO: Frederick ChanFrederick, who’s married, reveals that between him and his wife, he’s actually the more particular one when it comes to neatness. It’s a trait which he got from his mother, he says, but he has definitely surpassed the master.
Having avatars and stickers that look like you makes messaging your friends and family a much more engaging experience. Who could forget Snapchat’s Bitmoji in 2007?
Oh and Kim Kardashian-West’s Kimoji in 2015? Apple even followed suit 2 years later and launched Memoji. Well, Facebook just launched their own avatars and stickers and there are so many options to choose from.
Available to all Facebook users, Facebook’s new Avatars feature gives users a way to convey their authentic identity when expressing themselves on the social media platform.
You can pop champagne in celebration of a Friendversary, send a flirty sticker to your partner to hint at the saucy plans for the night ahead and more.
The SingapoRediscovers vouchers for tourist attractions, tours and hotel bookings will be given out via SingPass.
Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing at Jurong Bird Park speaking on the new tourism vouchers on Sep 16, 2020. (Photo: Ang Hwee Min)
(Updated: )
Bookmark
SINGAPORE: Every Singaporean aged 18 and above in 2020 will receive S$100 worth of SingapoRediscovers vouchers, to be used between December 2020 and end of June 2021.
Speaking to reporters at Jurong Bird Park on Wednesday (Sep 16), Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing said: “This is not a social assistance scheme. This is an economic scheme to help our tourist attractions to preserve their capabilities that have been built up over the years, while they consolidate capacity in the interim.”
The vouchers will be provided in denominations of S$10 via SingPass, and can be used to purchase tickets for tourist attractions and tours, and accommodation bookings at licensed hotels, said the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) in a separate fact sheet on Wednesday.
More details on the redemption mechanisms will be announced in November.
This comes after Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat announced in August that the Government would be giving out S$320 million worth of vouchers to encourage Singaporeans to support local tourism businesses.
A S$10 subsidy will also be provided for children and youth tickets for attractions and tours, said the STB. Each person can purchase up to six children or youth tickets at subsidised prices.
The scheme will complement the ongoing SingapoRediscovers campaign launched in July, said the STB.
Over 200 deals and bundled packages have been launched “to encourage locals to explore different precincts and aspects of life of Singapore”, the STB said. The vouchers will provide more encouragement for Singaporeans to do so, it added.
All licensed hotels, tourist attractions and tours that have been approved by the STB to operate or reopen can benefit from this scheme.
“We’ll expect a certain multiplier effect because when people come here, they will also spend on other things. We have kept the scheme relatively simple. So for example, they can use this to pay off the tickets or defer the cost of the tickets for coming in.
“But when they come in, they will spend on some of the F&B and other services that the attractions, hotels or the tours provide,” said Mr Chan on Wednesday.
“So with that we think that there will be a catalytic effect. As to the exact extent of the catalytic effect it will be hard to predict at this point in time, but we hope that is at least a few times what we have provided for in the budget.”
Thanking tourist attractions for “putting in an effort” to put safe management measures in place amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Chan said: “The other thing that they have done very well over the last few months or so was to help us work out the arrangement to have safe cohorting for the live performances.”
From Sep 18, attractions that have received approval to resume operations can apply to the STB to increase their operating capacity from 25 per cent to 50 per cent, subject to approval from the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Attractions can also apply to increase the capacity of their number of outdoor shows to five zones, with 50 people in one zone, subject to safe management measures.
Outdoor shows were previously limited to a maximum of 50 people.
When California-based performance artist and actor Loo Zihan returned home to Singapore in March, he began taking long walks along the Rail Corridor – a stretch of greenery that spans the country’s old railway line.
The three-hour, 9.5km (6 mile) hikes through nature were a balm for the social isolation he endured during Singapore’s partial lockdown, when people were only permitted to leave their homes for essential business or exercise.
“Being a performance-based artist, I was interested in observing how the body adjusts to restrictions of mobility, and how it adapts to being confined within a limited space for long periods of time,” says Loo, who decided to return to Singapore at the urging of friends and family worried about the rapidly worsening spread of Covid-19 in the United States.
His isolation walks inspired him to create a performance project titled Temporary Measures, a series of one-on-one long-distance “processions” along the Rail Corridor accompanied by donors to a fundraiser for migrant workers.
SHANGHAI: China is inoculating tens of thousands of its citizens with experimental coronavirus vaccines and attracting international interest in their development, despite expert concerns over the safety of drugs that have not completed standard testing.
China launched a vaccine emergency use programme in July, offering three experimental shots developed by a unit of state pharmaceutical giant China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and US-listed Sinovac Biotech. A fourth COVID-19 vaccine being developed by CanSino Biologics was approved for use by the Chinese military in June.
Aiming to protect essential workers and reduce the likelihood of a resurgence, the vaccines are also grabbing attention in the global scramble by governments to secure supplies, potentially helping reframe China’s perceived role in the pandemic.
Beijing has not released official data on the uptake in domestic targeted groups, which include medical, transport and food market workers.
But China National Biotec Group (CNBG), the Sinopharm unit developing two of the emergency use vaccines, and Sinovac have confirmed that at least tens of thousands of people have been inoculated. Additionally, CNBG said it had given hundreds of thousands of doses; one of its vaccines requires an individual receive two or three shots to be inoculated.
Beijing has engaged a public, top-down approach to endorse the experimental vaccines and foster community support. Among those lining up for shots early on were the chief executives of Sinovac and Sinopharm and the military’s research chief.
The chief biosafety expert at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed this week that she too had been injected in April as she announced the potential that at least some of the vaccines would be ready for public use as early as November.
“So far, among the people who who were vaccinated, no one has been sick with the disease,” Guizhen Wu said on state TV. “So far, (the vaccination scheme) works very well. No side effect occurred.”
Wu’s comments were broadly in line with comments by CNBG last week that none of tens of thousands of people who travelled to high-risk countries and regions after being vaccinated had been infected, and there was “no case of obvious adverse reaction”.
China’s approach runs counter to that of many Western countries, where experts have warned against authorising the emergency use of vaccines that have not completed testing, citing a lack of understanding about longer-term efficacy and potential side effects.
Anna Durbin, a vaccine researcher at Johns Hopkins University, described China’s emergency use programme as “very problematic”, saying it was impossible to judge efficacy without a clinical trial standard control group.
“You’re vaccinating people and you don’t know if it’s going to protect them,” Durbin told Reuters, adding recipients of the experimental vaccines could eschew other protective measures.
Vaccine safety came into sharp focus last week when AstraZeneca Plc paused late-stage clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine, one of the most advanced in development.
The company resumed British trials over the weekend after receiving the green light from safety watchdogs, and, along with other leading Western vaccine makers has pledged to uphold scientific study standards and reject any political pressure to rush the process.
Russia is one of the few other countries to authorise the use of an experimental vaccine, making its own “Sputnik V” vaccine mandatory for certain groups including teachers. India is considering emergency authorisation for a vaccine, particularly for the elderly and people in high-risk workplaces.
FILE PHOTO: Booth displaying coronavirus vaccine candidate from CNBG in Beijing
FOREIGN BUYERS
The UAE authorised the emergency use of a Sinopharm vaccine this week, the first international emergency clearance for one of China’s vaccines, just six weeks after human trials began in the Gulf Arab state. UAE officials reported mild and expected side effects, but no severe side effects, during those trials.
CanSino has been approached by several countries, a source familiar with the discussions told Reuters, adding the military’s approval helped attract foreign interest. The person declined to name the countries engaged in talks.
CanSino, which has trials planned in Pakistan and Russia for the vaccine developed with China’s military research unit, did not respond to a request for comment.
Zhang Yuntao, CNBG vice president told Reuters his company has received interest from foreign countries to buy about 500 million doses of its experimental vaccine.
“China clearly wants to reorient that narrative in a way that it is viewed as a solution rather than a cause of the pandemic,” Yanzhong Huang, Senior Fellow for Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations, a US-based think tank.
“That narrative, ironically, may become more convincing when Trump’s America First approach denies many countries opportunities to access the US-made vaccines.”
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday vowed to prioritise China and Russia in his country’s global shopping for a vaccine, saying his government had already had talks with both. He said China was unlike other countries seeking a “reservation fee” or advance payment.
“The one good thing about China is you do not have to beg, you do not have to plead,” Duterte said. “One thing wrong about the western countries; it’s all profit, profit, profit.”
