Far East Hospitality to open 3 hotels

Far East Hospitality to open 3 hotels in next 3 months



A room, and an artist's impression of the Village Hotel Katong; the Amoy's lobby (above). -- PHOTO: FAR EAST HOSPITALITY

Far East Hospitality yesterday revealed it will officially launch three hotels in Singapore in each of the next three months.

The home-grown hotel operator also announced two joint ventures as part of expansion plans to take its portfolio from 18 properties in Singapore to more than 80 across Asia, Oceania and Europe.

The Peranakan-themed Village Hotel Katong will be launched next month at the site of the former Paramount Hotel after refurbishment costing $30 million. The project recovered after a fire broke out during renovations in July last year which saw 11 people taken to hospital.

Far East Hospitality's chief executive Arthur Kiong said the 229-room hotel, located in the heritage-rich Katong area, targets those "looking for a genuine experience and not just the obvious touristy places". Opening promotion rates start from $178.

~News courtesy of Straits Times~

Singapore Biennale

Singapore Biennale to explore changing face of Southeast Asia this year

The Singapore Biennale is back for its fourth edition and will begin on Saturday until February 16.

This year's theme, "If The World Changed", invites artists to respond to and reconsider the worlds we live in and the worlds we want to live in, against the backdrop of a changing Southeast Asia.

Some 90 per cent of this year's artists hail from the region.

Visitors can expect a visual treat from contemporary art works and the chance to interact with more than 80 artists from 13 countries.

And instead of just one curator, this year there will be a team of 27 curators from the region.

Tan Boon Hui, curator and project director of Singapore Biennale 2013, said: "What this allows us that we could never do before, in a sense, is to tap the richness of knowledge and skills that curators have from the region.

"It also allows us to bring in artists that normally people do not see outside of their country, so the biennale becomes very fresh and it has a creative energy.

“And you don't feel almost as if it's a textbook list of artists, and the works also would be very new, so I think it would be very interesting and provocative for many of our audiences."

Dr Susie Lingham, director of Singapore Art Museum, said: "This time, together with this new platform, with the Singapore Biennale this year, we decided to do something different -- don't just feature international works, do the circuit.

“Instead we actually went into the heartlands of Southeast Asia, worked with different regions, worked with co-curators, so Singapore Art Museum curators work with co-curators, putting together works where a good 90 per cent of them, you've never seen before."

~News courtesy of Channel Newsasia~

"Titans of the Past" at Singapore Science Centre

"Titans of the Past" debuts at the Singapore Science Centre



A dinosaur skull on display at the exhibition. (Photo: Singapore Science Centre website)

Two travelling dinosaur exhibitions -- revealing life-size dinosaur skeletons -- will make their Singapore debut on Friday at the Singapore Science Centre.

The highlight of the exhibition, titled "Titans of the Past - Dinosaurs and Ice Age Mammals", is the largest T-rex skull ever discovered by scientists and the first to ever leave the US.

Life-size skeleton casts of dinosaurs like the whopping 36-metre Argentinosaurus -- the heaviest and largest land animal ever to walk the earth -- should also be looked out for.

Museum of the Rockies’ curator of paleontology, Dr Jack Horner, said: "Most dinosaur exhibitions… don’t really have a theme, there’s just a lot of stuff.

“This has a theme that's very different from what anyone's seen because it's brand new science -- it shows that dinosaurs are more like birds and mammals than people have ever thought."

Animatronic dinosaurs flown from Japan will also make an appearance.

A range of land animals from the Ice Age are highlighted in an adjacent exhibition at the Science Centre.

There will also be hands-on workshops on dinosaur forensics for those who have always wondered what it is like to be a paleontologist.

The exhibition also features the latest knowledge in science about how dinosaurs lived and their behaviour, including the latest hypothesis of world-renowned paleontologist Dr Jack Horner and his research team.

They discovered that more than one-third of all dinosaur species classified from the Cretaceous Period may actually be juveniles, not different species as believed for the past century.

The exhibitions will end in February 2014.

~News courtesy of Channel Newsasia~

Somerset area in Orchard flagged as dengue hot spot

Somerset area in Orchard flagged as dengue hot spot

Bloodsuckers have arrived in the Somerset area near Orchard Road, but they are not eyeing shoppers' wallets.

The dengue mosquito has infected 18 people in the area, prompting the National Environment Agency (NEA) to flag part of Singapore's premier shopping belt as a dengue red zone. An area put on red alert is considered a high-risk area with 10 or more reported dengue cases.

The dengue cluster extends to areas on either side of Somerset Road, ending where the road merges into Grange Road. Hangouts within the area include Scape Skate Park, Triple One Somerset and 313@somerset. Cathay Cineleisure Orchard, Peranakan Place and The CentrePoint fall just outside the area.

NEA said yesterday that it was informed of the cluster on Oct 10 and two mosquito-breeding spots have been found at the Orchard Gateway construction site.

Of the 18 dengue cases, 15 comprised construction workers from the Orchard Gateway project while the remaining three were people working within the cluster area. The first case was reported on Sept 25.

"It cannot be confirmed if the three contracted dengue at their workplaces or at their residences," NEA said.

Another cluster near Orchard Road, in the Eber Road and Oxley Rise area, comprises three cases. NEA was informed of this cluster on Thursday.

The agency said it has observed no link between the two clusters so far, and officers have been deployed to check the area for breeding habitats.

~News courtesy of OMY~

Dead polar bear Sheba lives on in Singapore Zoo as body preserved as exhibit

Dead polar bear Sheba lives on in Singapore Zoo as body preserved as exhibit



In death, as in life, Singapore Zoo's beloved polar bear Sheba will continue to enchant thousands of children each year.

The bear made its first appearance at the zoo yesterday, since its body was preserved by a taxidermist after it died of old age last November.

This Friday and Saturday, visitors can get up close to it as part of the zoo's Children's Day activities. Show-and-tell sessions will be held thrice each day. They are free to the public with admission to the zoo.

~News courtesy of Straits Times~

Hazy skies but air quality healthy

Hazy skies but air quality healthy

Singapore experienced slightly hazy conditions on Monday.

Its Pollutant Standard Index (PSI), which is a measure of air quality, rose to a three-hour average of 48 at 4pm which is still in the "good range".

The moderate range starts at 51.

Providing an update on his Facebook page, Environment and Water Resources Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said the hazy condition was due to the southwest winds blowing from hotspots in Riau and local accumulation of particulate matter over Singapore.

He added that the situation should improve as rain is forecast over the next few days which could help put out the fires in Riau.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) says the 24-hour PSI for the next 24 hours is expected to be in the good range.

~News courtesy of Channel Newsasia~