Singapore Flyer on track for completion by early 2008

SINGAPORE : Singapore's latest attraction - The Singapore Flyer - is on track to be completed by early next year.

The massive observation wheel will offer panoramic views of not only Singapore but certain parts of Malaysia and Indonesia as well.

As developers fit in the final bolt to the wheel's rim, it is impossible to escape comparisons with another wheel - The

Eye on KL - a ferris wheel built in the heart of Kuala Lumpur as part of Malaysia's drive to attract more tourists.

But the Singapore Flyer team wants to make this clear - the Singapore Flyer is not a ferris wheel.

"Your typical ferris wheel has a gravity slung cabin. It can take four to six people and it costs around US$10 to US$15 million to build. This S$230 million project has 10-tonne capsules carrying up to 35 people in air-conditioned comfort where people can sit or walk around inside the cabin," says Peter Purcell, MD of Singapore Flyer.

Part of the evolving landscape at Marina Bay, the project has used up more than one million man hours and is nine weeks ahead of schedule.

Rides will last 37 minutes and ticket prices will begin at about S$30 (US$20).

Corporate events can be held in the cabins for about S$1,000 (US$660).

There are contingency plans should anyone fall ill while in mid-flight.

"The wheel can be accelerated to bring people down if it's an in-cabin emergency. We've also been working with the SCDF, police and other agencies to ensure that in the event of any mechanical stoppage of the wheel, there is a slick and safe evacuation programme," said Purcell.

And as if the structure itself isn't amazing enough, there are strong rumours the UK-based group, which owns the famous Madame Tussauds Museums, has been in talks with the Singapore Flyer team.

But no details have been made available. - CNA /ls

World's tallest man found in Ukraine

Leonid Stadnik, 2.57 meters (8-foot-5.5) tall, Ukrainian veterinarian, stands by a car.(file photo) Stadnik, 36, is the tallest person in the world, beating a Chinese man who previously held the title, Guinness World Records said Wednesday Aug. 8, 2007. Stadnik’s growth spurt started at age 14 after a brain operation apparently stimulated his pituitary gland. He lives with his mother, Halyna, taking care of the family’s house and garden.

Wrestling in chocolate

A reveller wrestles in chocolate during Budapest’s one-week, round-the-clock Sziget (Island) Music Festival, on an island in Danube river, Aug. 13, 2007.

Japan's oldest person dies at 113

TOKYO: The oldest person in Japan, whose people are famed for their longevity, has died at age 113 just one week after her record was recognised, her nursing home said on Monday.

Shitsu Nakano, who was the fourth oldest person in the world, died on Sunday in Ogoori in southern Fukuoka prefecture, said an official at her nursing home.

A funeral will be held on Tuesday. She became the nation's oldest person after Yone Minagawa, who was certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest person, died last week at age 114, also in Fukuoka.

Edna Parker, 114, who lives in the Midwestern US state of Indiana, became the world's oldest person after the death of Minagawa, who was less than four months older.

More than 28,000 Japanese are 100 years or older, up from a mere 1,000 at the start of the 1980s, in a trend attributed to a healthy traditional diet and a high standard of healthcare. - AFP/so

Taiwanese airliner burst into fire after landing

TOKYO: A Taiwanese airliner burst into fire on Monday moments after landing in southern Japan but all 165 passengers and crew made a dramatic escape from the engulfing flames.
Giant flames and plumes of black smoke erupted from the China Airlines jet just eight minutes after it had landed from Taipei at Naha airport on Okinawa island.

"When we looked out the window, everything was covered with fire," an unidentified male passenger told reporters.

"It was just a few minutes after we got off that the fire swallowed the aircraft and we heard a blast."

Fire fighters sprayed hoses full of foam on the Boeing 737-800, which turned into little more than a charred skeleton that had collapsed into pieces by the time the blaze was put out an hour later.

Officials said three people were taken to hospital -- a 57-year-old man and seven-year-old girl who felt sick after the escape and a fire fighter who suffered heat stroke.

A flight attendant was also hurt but did not go to hospital.

Air traffic controllers noticed fumes after the plane landed following the flight of one hour and 20 minutes, and advised evacuation, Japanese officials said.

It was later found that an oil leak had caused an engine fire, according to China Airlines.

"When the fire broke out there was a huge bang and passengers were still in the midst of evacuating," Toshimasa Yamamoto, a witness at the airport, told Tokyo Broadcasting System.

"When the passengers appeared to be finishing the evacuation, the fire engulfed the entire plane. It really was a close call," he said.

All 157 passengers evacuated through emergency slides, said Akihiko Tamura, a transport ministry official in Tokyo.

The two pilots and six other crew members also made it out safely, Tamura said. One witness account said the pilot climbed out of the cockpit on a rope.

"It's unfortunate that the explosion happened, but it is fortunate that everyone is safe," Tamura told a news conference in Tokyo.

In Taipei, China Airlines also confirmed the safety of all passengers. The airline put the passenger number at 155, not including two infants without tickets.

"Everything was normal, including take-off and landing, until the pilots were told the airplane was on fire," China Airlines spokesman Johnson Sun told reporters.

Chang Kuo-cheng, head of Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration, grounded the airline's 11 other 737-800s for safety checks as well as two from its Mandarin Airlines subsidiary.

Japan's transport ministry said the fire started in an engine on the left wing of the plane after the oil leak. It said there were no indications of a terrorist attack.

Okinawa, a subtropical island which lies closer to Taiwan than Tokyo, is a popular tourist destination and is ordinarily packed with Japanese visitors during the ongoing summer holiday season.

The incident will likely rekindle memories in Japan of a major crash by a China Airlines plane in 1994. In that incident, 264 people were killed as the Airbus A300 nosedived on landing in the central Japanese city of Nagoya. - AFP/ac

Angkor Wat's lost city

THE Angkor Wat in Cambodia is the centre of a much bigger community than once thought.

The mediaeval Khmer city of Angkor was the largest pre-industrial metropolis in the world, with a population of nearly one million and an urban sprawl that stretched over an area similar to modern-day Los Angeles, researchers reported on Monday.

Now obscured by vegetation and low-lying clouds, the ruins surrounding the temple were once thousands of houses, roads, man-made ponds and canals, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Archaeologist Damian Evans of the University of Sydney, lead author of the paper, said: "We now know that instead of being just temples, Angkor was actually a continuous and interconnected network of temples and small-scale residential features like small village ponds."

The city's spread was made possible by a sophisticated technology for managing and harvesting water for use during the dry season, including diverting a major river through the heart of the city.

But that reliance on water led to the city's collapse in the 1500s as overpopulation and deforestation filled the canals with sediment, overwhelming the city's ability to maintain the system.

During the six centuries that the city thrived, it was unparalleled, particularly because it was one of the few civilisations that sprang up in a tropical setting.

"The scale is truly unparalleled," said archaeologist William A. Saturno of Boston University, who was not involved in the study.

"Forest environments are not good ones for civilisations... because they require intensively manipulating the environment. Angkor is the epitome of this, and it is going to be the model for how tropical civilisations are interpreted." The new data comes from an unusual agglomeration of both old and new technologies.

The core data came from a synthetic aperture radar unit flown on the space shuttle in 2000 and managed by Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada-Flintridge, California.

The radar pierced low-lying clouds and vegetation to give an accurate picture of soil density, local structures and moisture in soil, which reflects growing conditions.

The images clearly revealed, for example, the characteristic moat-enclosed local temples and artificial ponds used for water storage and irrigation.

This data was supplemented with photographs taken from ultralight aircraft flown over the city at low speeds and altitudes.

Finally, the researchers used motor scooters to traverse the city and closely examine sites revealed on the radar images. But so many sites have been revealed, Evans said, that researchers are only part way through the process.

The group, collectively called the Greater Angkor Project, released a partial map three years ago.

The new one released on Monday contains, among other things, an additional 1,000 sq km of urban area, at least 74 long-lost temples and more than 1,000 newly recognised artificial ponds.

Angkor was the capital of the Khmer empire, which got its start in AD 802 when the god-king Jayavarman II declared the region's independence from Java. At its height, the empire ruled not only Cambodia but also parts of modern-day Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

It is perhaps best known for the magnificent temple Angkor Wat, built by King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century.
AP, LAT-WP, REUTERS

Robbed, taken on terror ride

JOHOR BARU: It was a terror-filled morning for a retiree and his family. He was abducted and assaulted by several men. And then the culprits raided his home and tied up his wife and two children.

The robbers grabbed some money and jewellery and attempted to flee in the family car.

But one of them was caught in a high-speed chase that followed, with the police firing several warning shots at the Proton Perdana.

Another getaway car sped in a different direction, carrying Goo Tiam Chye, 69, in it.

He was later dumped at an undisclosed location.

The drama unfolded when Goo left his house in Taman Skudai Baru at 6.15am yesterday to buy newspapers.

Four men waylaid him and forced him into their car at knifepoint and demanded that he hand over the keys to his house.

When he refused, they hit him. The victim, whose son Sin Kok is the Gelang Patah MCA public complaints bureau deputy chief, then surrendered the keys.

The suspects drove him back to the house and while one of them held the victim in the car, three of them stormed into Goo’s house and tied up his wife, 60, and two of his children, both in their 20s.

They ransacked the house and grabbed about RM3,000 worth of cash, jewellery and mobile phones. The suspects then demanded the key to a Proton Perdana and as two of the suspects tried to drive the car out, a police patrol car arrived.

The four suspects, in two cars along with the retiree, sped off in different directions.

A high-speed chase ensued but within minutes, the Perdana’s anti-theft security system kicked in and the car stalled by the roadside.

Sin Kok said his father was injured on the leg and head and had been warded for observation.

State CID chief Senior Asst Comm Roslan Ahmad confirmed the arrest of a man in his 30s.