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I guess so, I was always good at music and art in school. I even learned to crochet at five just by watching my aunt. A lot of my time when I was younger was filled by making gifts such as friendship bands, customised pens using embroidery thread with my friends’ names, farewell gifts for the seniors, and crocheting bags and pencil cases for the new school term. WAS CREATIVITY ENCOURAGED IN YOUR FAMILY? I grew up in a typical Singaporean-Chinese family. I guess growing up with my grandmother in the kampong gave me more freedom to explore and experience things with my hands – I dabbled in everything my grandmother did as she would always give me a set of my own tools and small bit of material or ingredients so I can be quiet sitting next to her while was was making kueh, pounding chilli, ...

SINGAPORE: A man disturbed by the smell of cigarette smoke in a coffee shop asked the culprit to stop smoking, but was soon grievously assaulted by a group of four men. One of the men in the group pleaded guilty to his role in the attack on Thursday (Sep 29). Nicholas Yeo Kexiong, 32, admitted to one count of causing hurt to the victim, where the hurt was not intended to be grievous but turned out to be so. Another charge will be considered in sentencing. The court heard that the 40-year-old victim was at a coffee shop along Kelantan Lane on the night of Aug 15, 2021. He had gone there to meet a friend for drinks to celebrate a birthday. Separately, Yeo was at the coffee shop with three of his drinking buddies: Lee Kee Fatt, 71, as well as Ng Kah Tiong, 56, and Yuen Tuck Wah, 59. Lee ...

:U.S. and global equities staged a partial comeback on Wednesday as the Bank of England said it would step in to the bond market to stem a damaging rise in borrowing costs, an attempt to dampen investors' fears of contagion across the financial system. The BoE said it would temporarily buy long-dated bonds - linked most closely to workers' pensions and home loans - in light of a surge in UK bond yields to their highest level in years. Sterling, which hit record lows against the dollar on Monday, was last up about 1.37 per cent in volatile trading, while gilt prices roared higher, fuelled by the central bank's commitment to postpone a planned sale aimed at reducing the bonds it bought during the depths of the pandemic. European government bonds also got a lift from the surge in gilts. I...

WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday (Sep 29) imposed sanctions on companies it accused of involvement in Iran's petrochemical and petroleum trade, including five based in China, pressuring Tehran as it seeks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Washington has increasingly targeted Chinese companies over the export of Iran's petrochemicals as the prospects of reviving the nuclear pact have dimmed. Indirect talks on the accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), have broken down. "So long as Iran refuses a mutual return to full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the United States will continue to enforce its sanctions on the sale of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products," the Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Fi...

Let's get you up to speed with the day's stories. Singapore has recorded a 35 per cent to 40 per cent week-on-week increase in COVID-19 daily cases, translating to 900 to 1,000 more infections every day, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday (Sep 30). There has been no indication that the increase in cases has led to more severe diseases. There has also been no significant impact on Singapore’s healthcare system due to this higher number of daily infections. The Omicron variant BA.2.75 or “Centaurus” accounted for about a quarter of all daily infections. MOH said the main reason for the increase in cases is most likely due to social mixing and gatherings, and relaxing of rules on masks. The proportion of reinfections also increased from about 6 per cent of all reported cases fro...

SINGAPORE : CVC Capital Partners has decided to sell its 25 per cent stake in the toll road arm of China's Road King Infrastructure Ltd as part of a deal that aims to value the unit at up to $3 billion, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. The Europe-based private equity firm's exit from Road King Expressway International Holdings (RKE) will come alongside a partial sale by the Chinese parent of its 75 per cent stake, they said. RKE operates five expressways in China and three in Indonesia. Its $3 billion valuation partly hinges on the purchase of another toll road asset in the Southeast Asian nation that it is close to finalising, the sources told Reuters. One of the sources said the asset purchase is likely to be worth at least $500 million. The likely purchase of t...

SINGAPORE : China has set the size of its latest batch of oil products export quotas for 2022 at about 15 million tonnes, trade sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday, a shift in fuel export policy as Beijing seeks ways to boost trade. The quotas, widely expected by the market for the last two weeks, include 13.25 million tonnes of refined products - normally gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel - and 1.75 million tonnes of low-sulphur marine fuel, two of the sources said. The new issue of 13.25 million tonnes, the year's single largest allotment, takes total allotments of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel combined for 2022 to 37.25 million tonnes, on par with 2021. Industry and government sources have said the rushed decision to raise refined fuel exports, a change in policy aft...

JAKARTA: Indonesia has approved its first locally developed COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, the head of the country's public health agency said on Friday (Sep 30), hailing it as a step toward "the nation's independence in access to medicine". Jakarta has stressed the importance of developing national vaccines since the beginning of the pandemic but it currently relies on China's Sinovac and the Western-made Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA jabs. The IndoVac jab, developed by state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma and Texas-based Baylor College of Medicine, can now be used as a primary dose for an unvaccinated or partially vaccinated adult in the world's fourth most-populous country. "The development ... of a domestic vaccine is a pride for us Indonesians as a foundation and as...

RIYH: Under the watchful eye of an instructor, Munira al-Rubaian spreads fresh bed linen in a mock hotel room in the Saudi capital, aiming to land a job in the desert kingdom's growing tourism sector. The unemployed 25-year-old is one of thousands of Saudis enrolled in the state-run Tourism Pioneers programme, which aims to prepare 100,000 job-seekers for a field that government officials insist is set to take off. At two facilities in Riyadh, Rubaian and other trainees study tasks like welcoming hotel guests, plating food in upscale restaurants and keeping luxury suites squeaky clean. Others are sent abroad for short courses in countries with far more advanced tourism industries, including the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and France. This army of newly minted bellboys, cleaners and...

SINGAPORE: After an argument over his roommate’s spending habits, a man went to prepare some food but ended up stabbing his roommate with the knife he meant to cut ingredients with. Naing Lin, a 51-year-old Myanmar national, was intoxicated when he swung his knife at compatriot Myo Kyaw Thu, stabbing him several times in his chest and abdomen in their flat at Bedok Reservoir Road on Apr 2, 2021. He left the flat and did not return until the next morning when he saw the victim lying motionless in the bedroom in a pool of blood. Naing Lin was sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday (Sep 22) after pleading guilty to one count of murder. The court heard that the victim, 49, was a senior technician in Singapore but had been on a short-term visit pass at the time of his death. In the aft...