Eduardo Saverin, one of the founders of Facebook.com, took up a more tax-friendly residency status in Singapore. Mr. Saverin was living in Singapore since 2010 and plans to remain here “indefinitely”. He was born to a wealthy family in Brazil and gained American citizenship at the age of 17 in 1998. He then renounced his American citizenship after holding it for twelve years. Read more »

A two million dollars red Ferrari 599 GTO, one of Ferrari ’s fastest-ever road car, beat the Red Light at Rochor Road and Victoria Street Junction and crashed into a passing blue Comfort Hyundai Sonata Taxi. The impact was so great that parts from both cars, including the engine block of the taxi, was scattered all over the road. The 4.15am accident killed the male driver, a wealthy 31-year old Mainland Chinese National from China’s Sichuan Province, the 50-year old local taxi driver and a 20-something-year old female Japanese passenger riding the taxi. Two other people were injured. Read more »

A Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) full-time National Service man, 3SG Tan Mou Sheng, dies after the Army Scout Jeep he was travelling with turn turtle in rough terrain. The training incident at Marsiling training area at 6:50am. 3SG Tan sitting in back seat of a scout jeep as part of an exercise when the driver lost control of the vehicle and the jeep overturned. He was found pinned under the vehicle. The three other soldiers in the jeep, including the driver, managed to escape without injury. Read more »

The Elections Department said the by-election on 26 May 2012 will have a total of nine polling stations. Two parties, the ruling PAP and the Workers Party, will be eying for the vacated site. Read more »

About 100 fallen trees were found in the wooded areas of Changi Beach Park due to stormy weather over the Vesak Day Weekend. National Parks Board (NParks) said this on Monday after intense rain and strong wind uprooted many trees. NParks said heavy rain over the weekend softened the soil in the area. Read more »

OCBC Bank has been named the world’s strongest bank by Bloomberg. The assessment is based on factors like the Bank’s Tier 1 capital ratio, loan-to-deposit ratio, ratio of non-performing assets to total assets. The bank’s internal efficiency ratio, which compares costs with revenues, were ranked. Read more »

The first 340 were selected from a total of 4,150 student applications have enrolled as the pioneer batch in the new Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). 47% of cohort are female, which is high for and engineering university. 75 students have been awarded scholarships from SUTD while 16 received scholarships from various organisations. Read more »

The Pasir Ris One with 447-unit is the Housing Board’s last privately developed flat under its Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS). There were three- and five-room flats on offer at prices from $490,000 (650 sq. ft.) to $770,000 (1,100 sq. ft.). But unlike a condo, Premiere at Tampines does not have facilities such as a gym, tennis courts or a swimming pool. The first DBSS project was launched in 2006. Read more »

The Singapore Government have partnered two public transport operators, SBS Transit and the SMRT, to add about 800 buses over the next five years. The government will pay for 550 buses, while the operators will fund the remaining 250. As such, Singapore Land Authority (SLA) has release two new space for parking these buses overnight - one at Changi another at Woodlands. Read more »

Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard is on an official visit to Singapore. She was given a ceremonial welcome at the Istana this morning. Also present was Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. After the ceremony, Ms Gillard met Singapore’s Acting President Mr J Y Pillay. Ms. Gillard is in Singapore to hold security and trade talks with her Singapore counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong. Ms. Gillard reassured that the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) would be allowed continued access to training facilities in Oakey in Queensland, Pearce in Western Australia and Tamworth in Victoria. Read more »

Singapore has pledged S$5 billion (US$4 billion) to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) “War Chest”. This increases its capability to provide money to fight future economic crisis and for the IMF to draw down should the need arise. According to insider, the amount represents only 2% of Singapore’s S$243 billion foreign reserves. Read more »

After 18 months, 78,000 man-hours and repairs costing US$144 million, the aircraft is finally ready to fly again. The Qantas Airbus A380 aircraft that experienced a mid-air engine explosion in 2010 returned home to Sydney from Singapore. Read more »

Eurocopter, a French helicopter manufacturer, opened its new helicopter simulator complex inside Seletar Aerospace Park. The high-tech Eurocopter simulator was the first to be built outside of France is used for trainer pilots at executing different helicopter manoeuvres. An average of 50 of its pilots train with it annually. Read more »

The Singapore Government has installed high resolution video camera at 300 public housing blocks and multi-storey carparks as part of S$160 million Community Policing System. This is to help the Police Department better prevent, deter and detect crime at Bukit Merah, Bishan, Clementi, Punggol, Sengkang, Tampines and Woodlands. The master plan is to cover 10,000 public housing blocks and multi-storey carparks islandwide with the cameras by 2016. Read more »

A 21-year old soldier, Dominique Lee, from 3rd Battalion Singapore Infantry Regiment died while participating in a platoon exercise at Murai Urban Training Facility at Lim Chu Kang involving the use of smoke grenades. He experienced breathing difficulties at 12.30pm and lost consciousness minutes later. He was evacuated to Sungei Gedong Medical Centre, 3.5 kilometers away (a ten minutes drive), shortly after. He was then sent to National University Hospital (NUH), another 24 kilometers away (a thirty minutes drive), while an SAF doctor continued to resuscitate him in the ambulance en route to the hospital. He was pronounced dead at NUH about an hour and the half after he had fainted. Read more »

Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said that the certificate of entitlement (COE) prices are soaring because the economy is doing well and not because the Government is further slowing the growth in the vehicle population. He was responding to a steady stream of complaints about COE prices - now at their highest in more than a decade. Read more »

Even with the SGD $2 Million price tag for a small 3-bedroom apartment, about 70% of the 180 units of the private housing development located in Bishan were snapped up over the weekend. And according to the developer, eight in ten buyers are Singaporeans. It is to be the most expensive suburban condominium ever to be sold in Singapore. The in Bishan Central home was sold for about S$1,750 per square foot (psf). Read more »

Singapore’s newly acquired Gulfstream 550 Airborne Early Warning (G550-AEW) aircraft became fully operational. The G550 aircraft uses one of the world’s most advanced radar and communications systems to detect aerial threats. It has a detection range of more than 200 nautical miles. Today also see the commended the work of the 111 Squadron (RSAF Sqn 111), also known as the Jaegers, which operates the G550-AEW aircraft. Read more »