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)

Singapore drops to 5th in Network Readiness index

Singapore fell two notches on the Networked Readiness index, an annual ranking released on Wednesday by the World Economic Forum.

The index, which measures the impact of infocomm policies and usage in 127 economies, ranked Denmark as the most ready to take advantage of technology.

It is followed by Sweden, Switzerland, the United States and Singapore.

This is the lowest Singapore has ranked since topping the chart in 2005. It was second in 2006, and third in 2007.

In this year’s ranking, the Republic was top in the quality of math and science education and the Government’s vision of infocomm, areas in which it had done well in the past.

But it only scored 15th on the accessibility of digital content, a new indicator measuring whether content is widely available on platforms such as the Internet, mobile phones and cable television. (story)

Sufiah Yusof has been soliciting clients online for months

Sufiah Yusof, the child Maths genius who was found working as a hooker had been using the Internet to solicit for clients since December.

She also used a UK-based Internet sex forum and her own website “Exotic Manchester Asian escort” to promote her services.

However, the site, which she had registered and maintained herself, has been removed after News of the World broke the news of her working as a hooker.

Checks with the Internet registrar on domains revealed that Sufiah started the website on Dec 3 last year.

She bought the domain name for her webpage for two years.

Sufiah, 23, called herself Sufiah Marshall, borrowing the family name of her former husband, Jonathan Marshall, to register the website via a German domain handler.

The checks also revealed she had used a German server to host her website pages but with a United Kingdom domain name. (story)

IOC to China, open up the Internet for us

Internet censorship is practically synonymous with China these days. The Chinese government is often used as the poster child for restrictive governments that restrict the free flow of information to its residents. That could be why the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is getting antsy, as Beijing is bound by contract as this year’s Olympic host city to allow the press to report as usual during the games. And reporting as usual means unrestricted Internet access.

The IOC “discussed and insisted” with the Chinese government again this morning that the Internet is required to be “open at all times during Games time,” IOC coordination commission vice chairman Kevan Gosper told Reuters. “There was some criticism that the Internet closed down during events relating to Tibet in previous weeks, but this is not Games time.” (story)

Ida Nerina speaks out on so-called sex video

It may look like us but it is definitely not us.That is what Ida Nerina and Fauzi Nawawi say.

The duo - both married to others - are reported to be the ’stars’ of a sex video making the rounds on the Internet.

But in an e-mail response to The New Paper, the Malaysian actress, who is in her 40s, said: ‘I am NOT the girl in the distasteful video in question.

‘She may look a little like me but it’s not me.’

The 10-minute clip shows a couple having sex in a room.

Ida is married to music producer Sha’arin Mohammed Razali.

She added that she made a police report and the authorities are investigating.

Singaporean audiences may remember Ida in her role as the mother in Yasmin Ahmad’s films, Sepet and Gubra.

The films were screened in Singapore in 2005 and 2006 respectively. (story)

Baidu.com blamed for spreading sexy Edison Chen photos

China’s top Internet search engine has been censured for allegedly helping spread sexually explicit photos. The government-sponsored watchdog group is demanding both action and an apology from Baidu.com over the online availability of the photos, which feature several Hong Kong celebrities.

The photos appear to show actor Edison Chen and several female stars performing sex acts or in sexually suggestive poses.

They are widely available in Hong Kong, where the scandal has dominated the headlines for several weeks.

The watchdog group, called the Beijing Association of Online Media, praised other Chinese sites such as NetEase.com, Sina.com and Sohu.com for urging their users not to spread the photos. (story)

Edison quits
Triads offering HK $500,00 reward …
Maggie Q linked …
Singapore stars dragged …

Triads offering HK $500,000 reward for Edison Chen’s hand

Word has it that an underworld figure has offered a HK$500,000 ($91,000) reward to hack off one of his hands, reported Apple Daily Hong Kong.Chen has apparently been targeted by the triads after hundreds of obscene photos of him and several female celebrities like Bobo Chan and GillianChung were stolen from his laptop computer and posted on the Internet.

On Sunday, more photos of Chen and Chan were circulated online.

Apple Daily HK, quoting a police source, reported that someone is planning to harm Chen when he returns.

Chen is now lying low in Boston, on the advice of his management company, Media Asia. (story)

Edison quits
Baidu.com blamed …
Maggie Q linked …
Singapore stars dragged …

Shanghai metro apologizes to “kissing couple”

Shanghai’s metro rail authority apologised to a couple who had threatened to sue after a video of them kissing on a station platform was posted on the Internet, state media reported on Friday.The video clip shows the couple in a prolonged embrace as three voices speaking in the local Shanghai dialect can be heard in the background laughing and making lewd sexual comments.

‘We have wrapped up an internal investigation and found the videotape was uploaded by people who had worked for Shanghai Metro,’ officials with the Shanghai Metro Operation was quoted as saying by the Xinhua news agency.

‘We made formal apologies and are negotiating with the couple over compensation.’ (story)

Man meets girl, films oral sex, fined $1000

Mohamad Radzi Mohamad Jasni, has landed himself in trouble for possession of the obscene video clip. He was fined $1,000 but escaped a maximum six-month jail term.

A district court on Friday heard how Radzi, 30, and his 16-year-old girlfriend, whom he got to know over the Internet, had gone down to the void deck of Block 893D in Woodlands Drive 50 in 2005.

He brought the woman, a student, up to the 11th floor where she performed oral sex on him while he filmed the entire act on his digital camera.

The clip was downloaded onto his computer but it was later circulated on the Internet before the girl found out about it and reported it to the police. (story)