world

Holy Land Catholics condemn deadly Sri Lanka blasts

JERUSALEM: The Catholic Church in the Holy Land has voiced support for Sri Lanka‘s Christians and condemned Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels there that killed at least 156 people.A statement issued in Jerusalem said the blasts were particularly sad as they “came while Christians celebrate Easter.”“We pray for the souls of the victims […]

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Dementia patients take to VR aids

Virtual reality (VR) devices seem the preserve of young, switched-on techies, but they are having a transformative effect on some elderly folk like Mr Ho Chee Kiong. When Mr Ho, who has dementia, first entered a senior daycare centre at Ayer Rajah a few months ago, he shunned the activities. Instead, he stood at the […]

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Technology in nursing homes: E-tagging of seniors boosts safety but is it dignified?

Patients at some nursing homes here are being tagged and their movements tracked round the clock, in a controversial practice that has drawn mixed reactions. At least three nursing homes and a senior care centre in Singapore have been tracking the movement of seniors within their facilities by tagging them with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, […]

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Kelantan Crown Prince marries Swedish national

KOTA BARU • The Crown Prince of Kelantan, Tengku Muhammad Faiz Petra, has married Swedish national Sofie Louise Johansson, 33. The solemnisation ceremony was conducted on Thursday night at the main Istana Balai Besar, in the state capital Kota Baru. Malaysian media had reported that the couple have known each other since Tengku Muhammad Faiz, 45, […]

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KL diverting portion of defence budget to bail out Tabung Haji, Felda

KUALA LUMPUR • Malaysia is putting its defence spending on the back burner as the government is channelling more than RM20 billion (S$6.56 billion) to bail out two key Malay institutions, Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu has said. The Pakatan Harapan government is pumping money into Muslim pilgrimage fund Tabung Haji and landowners under the government’s […]

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US couple get life in prison for horrific child abuse

RIVERSIDE (California) • A California couple who tortured 12 of their 13 children, starving and beating them, depriving them of sleep and sometimes shackling them to their beds with chains, were sentenced on Friday to 25 years to life in prison. Some of their children gave statements at the sentencing hearing in Riverside, California, saying […]

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Book versions of Mueller’s report top Amazon bestseller list

WASHINGTON • Book versions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report were occupying the top spots of Amazon’s US bestseller list yesterday, despite being available for free online. Publishers are hoping to cash in on the intense interest in Mr Mueller’s long-awaited report on Russian tampering in the 2016 presidential election and Mr Donald Trump’s campaign. […]

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Lies and liars exposed but it’s not a crime to lie to the people

WASHINGTON • Addressing reporters from the White House lectern, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made a startling claim shortly after President Donald Trump fired then Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director James Comey two years ago. “I’ve heard from countless members of the FBI that are grateful and thankful for the President’s decision,” she said, […]

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Trump directs ire at ex-White House counsel

WASHINGTON • US President Donald Trump seethed on Friday over the special counsel’s damning portrayal of his protracted campaign to thwart the Russia investigation and directed much of his ire at former White House counsel Donald McGahn, whose ubiquity in the report’s footnotes laid bare his extensive cooperation in chronicling the president’s actions. Some of […]

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Susan Lim granted voluntary erasure from UK register

A medical tribunal in London has agreed to allow the voluntary erasure from the UK Medical Register of prominent Singapore surgeon Susan Lim, who was suspended for three years from practising. This was after she was found guilty of overcharging the sister of the Queen of Brunei, who died of cancer in 2007. The bill […]

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Singaporeans in Bay Area urged to consider opportunities back home

Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan have urged Singaporean professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area, which includes Silicon Valley, to keep in mind opportunities back home as the Republic develops and restructures its economy. Close to 300 Bay Area residents, almost all of them Singaporeans, gathered at a reception in […]

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Docs fight to keep alive baby born with nearly no skin

SAN ANTONIO, Texas • It should have been one of the happiest moments of Ms Priscilla Maldonado’s life but, instead, the 25-year-old mother was terrified. It was New Year’s Day and she had just delivered her newborn son, Ja’bari. She said she heard her son’s soft cries – and then the hospital room fell silent. […]

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‘Rollercoaster of emotions’ for British couple stranded in Singapore with premature baby

The fragile newborn weighed just 870g – less than the weight of a regular milk carton – when he was born here to a holidaying British couple, some 15 weeks before the due date. Baby Lorcan had to be rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), where he was kept in an incubator with […]

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Centre in Punggol North to expand kitchen space

The Early Years Centre in Punggol North is currently one of the few pre-schools run by PCF Sparkletots still using a food caterer for its meals, as it does not have sufficient kitchen space to feed 1,000 children at full capacity. But PCF chief executive Victor Bay said the centre will be building bigger kitchen […]

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PCF to have 38 centres for younger children by 2021

By 2021, PCF Sparkletots, the largest pre-school operator here, will have 38 centres that admit younger children aged up to four. These Early Years Centres, first announced in 2017, are part of the Government’s efforts to raise the quality of pre-school standards in children’s early years and meet the growing demand for full-day childcare places. […]

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Singaporeans’ feedback sought on marriage and parenthood

Over the next few months, the Government wants to hear from Singaporeans what they think about marriage and parenthood. Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said that the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) has set up a section on the Heybaby.sg website for people to submit suggestions on how to better support young families. The website […]