Tag: Singapore

Challenging Road To World And Asia Cup Finals For Lions

The road to qualification for the 2018 World Cup final in Russia is set to be a challenging one for Singapore’s national football team.

The draw for the second round of the FIFA World Cup Asian Zone qualifiers was conducted in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, with Singapore — ranked 162nd in the world — placed in Group E with Cambodia (179), Afghanistan (135), Syria (126), and four-time Asian champions Japan (50).

With the draw also serving as qualifiers for the 2019 Asian Cup Finals in the United Arab Emirates, Lions coach Bernd Stange admitted yesterday that Singapore can expect a tough ride in their bid for both tournaments.

The team will open their campaign in Cambodia on June 11 before hosting Japan five days later.

“I think the group we are in is a challenging one and we are not in any position to underestimate any of the teams,” Stange told TODAY.

“My overall aim is to qualify and the importance will be on the first two matches, to gain momentum. We will go game by game as it is going to be a marathon.

“Japan will be a difficult match. (But) I am absolutely optimistic of beating Syria since we have done it before, in 2013. I will tell every one of my players to take up the challenge we have ahead.”

Singapore have never qualified for the Asian Cup Finals — except for 1984 when the Republic hosted the event — and the team’s previous best outing in the World Cup Asian Zone qualifiers was in 2011/2012, when the team made it to the third stage.

The Lions have endured a string of poor performances in recent months, including a 2-2 draw with lower-ranked Guam in a friendly match last month, and were eliminated at last year’s AFF Suzuki Cup in the group stage.

Forty Asian countries, including newly-crowned Asian champions Australia, will contest the qualifiers. Eight group winners and the four best runners-up will advance to the next stage of World Cup qualifying and earn a spot in the Asian Cup.

The remaining teams will go into another phase of Asian Cup qualifiers.

Source: www.todayonline.com

April 15, 2015
Lorry Crashed Into Police Car At Pasir Panjang Road Carpark

A lorry crashed into a police car that was entering a carpark on Pasir Panjang Road on Tuesday.

The impact caused the police vehicle to slam into an electronic gantry at the carpark.

The police said the incident happened at about 3.30pm. Two officers who were in the car suffered minor injuries. They were taken to Alexandra Hospital.

The lorry driver was unhurt. Investigations are ongoing.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

April 15, 2015
Couple Behind The Real Singapore Charged On 7 Counts Of Sedition Each

The couple behind socio-political website The Real Singapore – a 26-year-old Singaporean man and a 22-year-old Australian woman – were on Tuesday (Apr 14) each charged with seven counts of sedition.

Yang Kaiheng and Ai Takagi allegedly published seditious articles on the website between October 2013 and February 2015. One of these articles falsely claimed that an incident between police and some members of the public during a Thaipusam procession earlier this year had been sparked by a Filipino family’s complaint that the drums played during the procession upset their child.

Yang is Singaporean, while Ai Takagi is Australian.

According to the charge sheets, the particular articles have the “tendency to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different groups of people in Singapore, name, between ethnic Indians in Singapore and Philippine nationals in Singapore”.

The pair also face an eighth charge, this time under the Penal Code, for failing to produce documents to a police officer from the Criminal Investigation Department.

Under the Sedition Act, the duo are liable, on conviction for a first offence, to a fine of up to S$5,000 or to imprisonment for a term of up to three years, or to both. As for the charge under the Penal code, they are punishable with imprisonment of a maximum of one month, or a maximum fine of S$1,500, or both.

Court bail for each was set at S$20,000, and the case will be mentioned again on May 12.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

April 14, 2015
Murder In Choa Chu Kang, 21 Year Old Singaporean Man Arrested

A 21-year-old Singaporean man has been arrested for the alleged murder of a 26-year-old man, who was found dead in a condominium unit in Choa Chu Kang on Monday night.

Police were alerted to the incident at about 11 pm on Monday. Upon arrival, officers found the 26-year-old man lying motionless in the three-bedroom apartment on the ground floor, and he was pronounced dead by paramedics at 11.16 pm.

The two men are believed to be siblings, and the suspect is believed to have suffered injuries. He was taken to a hospital.

Police have classified the case as murder, and investigations are ongoing.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

April 14, 2015
Third-Party Taxi-Booking Apps Faces Impending Regulations

Laws to regulate third-party cab-booking apps were proposed in Parliament today (April 13), which if passed will confer wide-ranging powers on the authorities to, for instance, amend, add to, or revoke codes of practice for specific providers, or across the industry.

The Bill introduced by the Transport Ministry will also require third-party apps to register with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) before operating here, failing which they will be fined up to S$10,000 or jailed up to six months.

The authorities can also impose sanctions of up to S$100,000 on providers that have failed to, among other things, comply with “any condition of registration (or) any direction given by the Authority”, and in severe cases, revoke the companies’ registrations.

The proposed framework, first announced by the LTA last November, will also spell out the conditions registered providers must comply with, such as dispatching only licensed taxis and drivers and providing information on fare rates upfront to commuters.

While app companies and transport experts whom TODAY spoke to welcomed the regulatory framework, they felt that it should not stifle innovation, which is critical to this industry.

Hailo Singapore’s general manager Wong Yu Hsiang said web-based third-party booking firms thrive on constantly designing new practices that allow them to “better latch on demand and supply in the market”.

One existing practice, which will be affected under the proposed framework, is to require prospective passengers to specify their destinations before they can make bookings.

“While we understand concerns that taxi drivers may avoid taking bookings to certain destinations, having that requirement would allow better optimisation of the fleet and reduce downtime,” he said.

He added that the current technology does enable third-party taxi providers to sieve out the cabbies who “constantly pick and choose”, and educate them.

Mr Li Jianggan, co-founder and managing director of Easy Taxi Singapore, said the framework will give drivers and commuters more predictability.

Echoing Mr Wong’s calls for room to innovate, Mr Li said: “Among the countries that Easy Taxi operates in, Singapore has been one of those more supportive of innovation, so we really hope that remains, even after regulations have been implemented.”

Both men felt that the proposed laws give the authority more powers because theirs is a “fairly new industry”.

“It makes sense (for the authority) to have flexibility to change the laws down the road…we don’t want them to over-regulate now and have to back-paddle later,” Mr Li said.

National University of Singapore transport researcher Professor Lee Der Horng said the new framework may offer some reassurance for traditional taxi operators, but it may be difficult for the Government to accurately evaluate the performance of third-party apps.

“You need a very sound basis to penalise people, but this becomes quite grey now because commuters’ booking behaviour is changing. At any one instance, commuters may use several apps to call for taxis but will eventually get on one, so it is hard to determine the matching rate and response time for each provider,” he said.

Source: www.todayonline.com

April 14, 2015