AUSTRALIA RELAXES RULES TO ATTRACT FOREIGN STUDENTS

Australia will relax university entry and visa requirements to attract more foreign students to the country. It hopes to boost its tertiary education sector, which has seen a drop in foreign students numbers recently due to strict visa requirements and a strong Australian dollar.

FACEBOOK PLAYS CATCH UP

Competition among social networks is heating up with Facebook announcing this week, two new features that mimic those of its rivals, Google+ and Twitter.

“Smart Lists” allows users to classify friends into different groups and specify the information to be shared with each group; a feature that is similar to “Circles” in Google.

“Subscribe” allows users to follow the status updates of any Facebook member; a feature that resembles “Follow” in Twitter.

SINGAPORE AMONG MOST EXPENSIVE PLACES TO BUILD

Singapore has been ranked third among the most expensive places to build in Asia. According to a report published by Property Report Asia,  construction costs in Singapore are just below that of Japan and Hong Kong.

The online report noted that construction prices in Asian countries have risen much higher than western countries in the last twelve months. For Singapore, the rise was fuelled by an increase in demand for construction in the tourism, commercial and residential sectors.

SINGAPORE'S NATIONAL COSTUME?

Curtain? Rug? Or a Masterpiece that reflected Singapore's multicultural identity? The national costume worn by Ms Singapore 2011 Valerie Lim, at the Ms Universe Pageant in Sao Paulo, has sparked an online debate that is as fiery as its colour.

This picture of Ms Lim on stage at Credicard Hall attracted hundreds of comments within a day it was posted on the Yahoo! Singapore Entertainment website on 8 September 2011.

TONY TAN ELECTED SINGAPORE PRESIDENT

Singapore’s former Deputy Prime Minister Dr Tony Tan has been elected President for the next 6 years. He won 35.2% of the votes cast, beating lawmaker Dr Tan Cheng Bock by a mere 0.35 percentage point.

A total of 2,156,389 votes were cast at the Singapore Presidential Election on 27 Aug 2011. Among them were 3,375 votes cast by overseas Singaporeans, who participated through nine overseas polling stations around the world. I did not vote because the nearest polling station was in Canberra.