Singapore rises to 7th in global competitiveness

Singapore climbed from eighth to seventh place in the World Economic Forum’s latest ‘global competitiveness index’ and leads the among Asian economies. The annual survey, released on Wednesday, found the United States had retained its status as top dog while Japan suffered a significant drop, falling from fifth to eighth.

The United Kingdom fell from second to ninth.

The rankings are based on a range of factors including quality of institutions, infrastructure, health, education and training, market efficiency, technological readiness and innovation in a country.

Over 11,000 business leaders were polled in a record 131 countries with their main strengths and weaknesses listed.

Singapore ranked top in indicators such as public trust of politicians, transparency of government policy making, quality of infrastructure and its educational system. (story)

Weeping: great way to get court adjourned

The woman suing the Redemptorist Order of Novena Church and its priests and choir members - 51-year-old Madam Amutha Valli - immediately buried her face in her hands and wept uncontrollably, even before she could finish taking the oath in court on Wednesday afternoon.It was her first appearance in the Supreme Court since the trial began a week ago - but it only lasted for less than an hour.

As her lawyer, Mr R.J Bajwa read out her 13-page affidavit to her, she took great difficulty to reply between her sobbing, wiping her tears with her handkerchief.

In between tears, Madam Valli said: ‘Don’t touch me…don’t touch me’, before requesting to take her medication.

Her daughter, 22-year-old Subashini Jeyabal, was seen in court shaking her head as her mother broke down.

Her inability to compose herself on the stand finally led Justice Lee to adjourn the trial to Thursday. (story)

Englishman bullies 67 yr old senior

What the Englishman and two of his fellow tourists thought would make a funny video now have them labelled as bullies.

The original video posted up by tourist Mr Bo Davis, 26, was titled “The Slowest Taxi in Southeast Asia” has provoked fiery responses from Netizens.

In the 3 minutes 51 seconds video, the three medium-built guys are seen squeezing onto a trishaw ridden by an elderly man. (story)

Dead newborn found in trash

A dead baby, believed to be a newborn, was found discarded among trash that had been collected from a bin centre located in Havelock Road.The infant was found at about 9.15 Wednesday morning.

A cleaner, 41-year-old Saumi Yun had just collected trash from Blk 96 Havelock Road and dumped it into a garbage truck.

He then went on to his next colllection point at Blk 29, about a 5-minute drive away.

It was as the garbage truck was reversing into the bin centre at Blk 29 that Mr Saumi discovered the motionless infant among the thrash he had collected.

The baby, believed to be a boy, still had his umbilical cord attached. He was wrapped in a blue towel. (story)

Nightclub fined in human trafficking scheme

A nightclub fed the immigration authorities the story that it had hired four Chinese nationals as stage singers.The truth was that the women weren’t even working there, and were paying the club and a middleman to pull this off.

On Wednesday, Grand Century Nite-Club was fined $12,000 for ’sponsoring’ the women’s immigration passes.

A district court heard that the club applied for the passes for them between December 2004 and July 2005.

The women, aged between 25 and 31 and seeking extensions on their stay here, had approached the club through a middleman.

Each paid the man between $400 and $500 every time she needed to extend their stay; each also paid the club $600 each time she required it to apply for the passes on her behalf. (story)

Singaporeans buying into HD TVs

A retail study from market researcher GfK Asia shows that the number of HD-supported TV sets sold here between January and September has more than doubled compared to the same period last year.

More than 150,000 units were sold to date, against 75,000 last year.

HD format promises images that are four times sharper than the current standard format, allowing viewers to see crowd faces in the Barclays Premier League broadcast, for instance.

GfK attributes the jump in sales to plunging prices.

‘We have seen prices decline by more than 30 per cent for the most popular screen-size segment,’ Ms Winnie Chua, a GfK Asia analyst, told The Straits Times.

Former drug lord dies

Former drug lord Khun Sa, one of the world’s most wanted men on whom the United States had put a two million-dollar bounty, died at the weekend in Myanmar, a Thai narcotics official said Tuesday.’Khun Sa has died of various diseases and old age,’ the senior officer with the Thai Office of Narcotics Control told AFP.

The man who was once Asia’s most notorious drugs trafficker, was thought to be 74 years old and was suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure.

A spokesman for the Shan State Army, one of the few guerrilla forces in Myanmar still fighting the junta, confirmed that Khun Sa had died on Saturday in Yangon, where he had been allowed to live after surrendering to the government in 1996.

(story)

Singaporeans uneducated when it comes to sex

Here in Singapore, conventional sex therapy usually involves a trip to the gynaecologist, where the clinical setting is controlled and considered safe.Recently it seems some women and couples are looking towards alterative sex therapies, according to an article in the November 2007 issue of Her World.

Such therapy sessions can involve a group of women or be in a more intimate one-on-one setting.

Debbie Lim, 38, a party organiser told Her World that she has put together some 80 sex workshops over 12 years.

A typical session could involve the women sitting in a group on the floor, with towels on their laps, surrounding their sex couch. Questions are asked and discussions held. Then vibrators are handed out, so everyone gets to practise and also to help the women locate their pleasure points, all under the cover of their towels.

(story)

16 yr old golf phenom, bags hole in one

First, he bagged an ace at the eighth hole of Laguna National Golf and Country Club’s Masters Course on Tuesday morning, while playing in the club’s Youth League Finals.

Hours later, the scratch golfer was presented with the inaugural Tay Cheng Khoon Eagle Award for being the HSBC Laguna Youth Golf programme’s most outstanding performer.

And on Thursday, Johnson will tee off as the youngest player in the US$4 million (S$5.8 million) Barclays Singapore Open at Sentosa’s Serapong course.

‘I still can’t believe I’ve qualified for Singapore’s biggest tournament,’ said Johnson, who turned 16 last Saturday.

He qualified as the Republic’s third-ranked national player, after finishing 25th at last week’s 60th Singapore Amateur Open.

The other two, Quincy Quek, 20, and Goh Kun Yang, 19, had already qualified for the tournament.

(story)

Singapore opens doors to Formula One race

Singapore plans to cash in on holding a Formula One race starting next year by developing a motor sports industry in the city-state.Singapore got the green light this week from Formula One’s governing body to hold the sport’s first-ever night race.

The government will seek proposals from the private sector in May next year to build a permanent race track in Changi, eastern Singapore, according the Singapore Sports Council.

“The government has identified the motor sports industry as a growth industry that will contribute to sports development and the economy in Singapore,” said Vivian Balakrishnan, minister for community development, youth and sports, in a statement Friday.

The racetrack is expected to be completed by early 2011.

(source)