Beach ball babes

It’s the Tiong Bahru market, but instead of the usual aunties, uncles and assortment of neighbourhood folk you would expect to find at a wet market on a typical weekday morning, a bevy of Mediacorp actresses were parading around in their bikinis instead.

A New Paper report today featured Joanne Peh, Jade Seah and Jesseca Liu in a photo spread as they flaunted bare skin and lots of cleavage. But it was all in the name of filming for their upcoming new drama, Beach.Ball.Babes.

One of the story plots call for the girls, who are part of a volleyball team, to strip down to their bikinis outside a wet market after they lose a bet.

The squeamish girls had to perform stunts such as picking up live frogs and scooping out dead squid from a tank. Joanne let out a scream when she grabbed the frog and squirmed so convincingly that she completed the scene in one take, while Jade had a lot of difficulty handling the squid until the stall owner assured her that they were dead and will not bite. (story)

17th case of chikungunya confirmed

The Ministry of Health has confirmed Singapore’s 17th case of the mosquito-borne disease, chikungunya, here.

He is Mr E. C. Sng, who caught the bug overseas. He believes he caught the virus while playing golf at Jakarta’s prestigious Jagorawi Golf & Country Club a month ago.

He has not passed on the disease to anyone and is no longer infectious.

So far, 13 people have been infected locally, and another four, including Mr Sng, caught the virus overseas.

Like dengue, chikungunya is spread through the Aedes mosquito. It spreads if an infected person is bitten by an Aedes mosquito within days of getting symptoms, which include fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, muscle ache, rash and pain in the joints. The mosquito spreads the virus to those it subsequently bites. (story)

Life as prostitute ends for teen

She is only 17 but has a bank balance of over RM80,000 ($34,450).

The secret as to how the teenager came to own so much cash came to light after she was hospitalised in Kuala Lumpur.

The first bombshell she dropped would have caused concern to any parent - her vagina was injured.

The second revelation: She sustained the injury while providing sexual services to a man from the Middle East.

Her third shocking confession was the money in her bank account. She had earned that by selling her body.

The teenager who hails from Terengganu had been offering sexual services in Kuala Lumpur since 2006, reported Harian Metro.

According to the tabloid, the girl charged between RM 2,000 and RM4,000 for her sexual services.

A source at her school told the newspaper that the revelations were shocking and only then some in the school understood why she made almost weekly trips to Kuala Lumpur.

Her double life was exposed when she didn’t turn up in school for several days in March. A teacher was asked to go to her house and investigate. (story)

Turtle eggs caught by immigration

An attempt by smugglers to bootleg turtle eggs, medicinal products, and contraband were foiled by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority and the Singapore Customs at the Marina Wharf last Saturday.

Routine inspection was being performed on the cargo vessel MV Penguin Indoraya II on Saturday afternoon when the officers detected suspected prohibited Indonesian traditional medicine, an assortment of Jamu, amongst declared consignment goods of two consignees.

Another group of officers detected boxes of turtle eggs, while yet another group uncovered four boxes of duty-unpaid cigaretes. (story)

Edison has found religion

Edison Chen, the bad boy of the recent sex photo scandal, prayed every day after the scandal broke out but he did not become a Christian because of it.

Recent reports had said that Chen, who quit Hong Kong showbiz and went to the United States just before the scandal blew over, had adopted Christianity in repentance over the scandal. He was said to have befriended a Californian pastor.

But his elder sister Tricia, a singer, said Chen had converted when he attended a Christian school in his youth. (story)

Singapore to upgrade broadband network

Singapore moved a step closer to setting up its ultra-fast broadband network today, when two consortia came forward with plans that promised a futuristic network that would open the floodgate to new online services.

The network, to be rolled out islandwide in the next few years, will offer speeds 10 times faster than now.

By the time the deadline came for tender submission on Monday, two consortia including heavyweight telecom operators like SingTel, StarHub and M1 had submitted their bids in their respective consortia.

Winning this bid would avail them of up to $750 million in government funds. This will be used to lay cables to hook up homes, schools and offices. (story)

Myanmar cyclone death toll rises

Myanmar’s foreign minister says the death toll from the cyclone that ripped through the country could reach 10,000.

Foreign diplomats said Foreign Minister Nyan Win acknowledged the possibility of the high casualty figure at a Monday briefing given to them and representatives of UN and international aid agencies.

State radio earlier reported that the official death toll from Saturday’s Cyclone Nargis had risen to 3,939 from an original count of 351.

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was held behind closed doors, said the foreign minister acknowledged 59 deaths in the country’s largest city of Yangon.

UN and private aid agencies say they are rushing to prepare assistance for victims of a devastating cyclone in Myanmar. (story)

New camera to help police catch auto thieves

The police may soon have a gadget that can quickly detect blacklisted vehicles - like stolen cars or those used in crime getaways.

The technical trial was completed last week on the Mobile Automated Vehicle Screening System (MAVSS), which comprises a car-mounted camera and a laptop computer.

The camera, which sits on the roof of police patrol cars, can scan up to six licence plates of parked or moving vehicles every second and feed the scans into a laptop in the police car. The scans are then compared against a database of stolen or wanted vehicles for matches.

The system, customised from a similar one in use by European crime enforcement agencies, does away with manual screening.

The police said it is not certain when the system will be introduced here. (story)

China launching cyber attacks against India

China’s cyber warfare army is marching on, and India is suffering silently. Over the past one and a half years, officials said, China has mounted almost daily attacks on Indian computer networks, both government and private, showing its intent and capability.

The sustained assault almost coincides with the history of the present political disquiet between the two countries.

According to senior government officials, these attacks are not isolated incidents of something so generic or basic as “hacking” — they are far more sophisticated and complete — and there is a method behind the madness.

Publicly, senior government officials, when questioned, take refuge under the argument that “hacking” is a routine activity and happens from many areas around the world. But privately, they acknowledge that the cyber warfare threat from China is more real than from other countries. (story)

Kidnap scam foiled

Desperately pressing a cellphone to her ear and looking confused, Madam Koh Eng Pien, 73, attracted the attention of the staff at a Maybank branch in Ang Mo Kio last month.

Employees suspected something was amiss when she insisted on transferring $2,000 to a bank account in Malaysia.

‘She was having difficulty writing down the name and account number of the recipient,’ said assistant service manager Mr Alex Wong, 28, recently. ‘I could also hear someone shouting at her through her cellphone.’

She initially claimed the money was for a friend, but later admitted it was ransom for her kidnapped son.

Bank staff told her that it was probably a scam and advised her to call her relatives. When she did, Madam Koh found out that her 40-year-old son, a coffee-shop supervisor, was at work. (story)