The following is a Facebook post by the Minister of Communications and Information, Yaacob Ibrahim, on the controversy surrounding the National Library's removal of two children's books from its shelves. I refer to NLB’s statement, "NLB Takes a Cautious Approach in Selecting Books for Children". https://www.facebook.com/nlbsg/posts/10152225024695924 The withdrawal of the three children’s titles from our public libraries has sparked much …

Mr Lee Hsien Loong has applied to the courts for a summary judgement in his defamation lawsuit against blogger Roy Ngerng. A summary judgment is a judgment entered by a court for one party against another party without the case going through a full trial. Such a judgment may be issued on the merits of an entire case, or on …

By Gangasudhan The National Library Board (NLB) has been in the spotlight this week with its controversial withdrawal of two children’s books on the grounds that they are not aligned to the “pro-family” philosophy championed by the board. To paint the background in broad strokes, the two books portray same-sex couples either rearing young or adopting a child, because at …

By Dr Wee Teck Young I wonder what Singaporeans will think of the international humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières’ warning on the 7th of July, 2014, that ‘the Trans-Pacific Partnership will further erode access to life saving medicines in all countries involved in the deal, hitting poor and vulnerable people the hardest’. Do we presume that governments and …

By S Y Lee and Leong Sze Hian We now know exactly where the $5 billion injection into Temasek Holdings came from, if we were to read the various media reports on the sources of the $5 billion capital injection from the Government into Temasek Holdings. Temasek Holdings had disclosed on Tuesday that it received a $5 billion capital injection from the Ministry of Finance …

Scientists at A*STAR’s Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) have developed a technology that shows how genes in healthy stomach cells are altered when they become cancerous. The study was reported in the scientific journal, Nature Communications on 10th July 2014. According to the World Health Organization, stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a major cause of cancer death …

By Darren Chan I agree with the points in Professor’s K Ranga Krishnan TODAY’s commentary “Cultivating self-confidence in students” (Jul 1). However, I feel that not all students have the self-confidence that they need to excel in school and to realise their potential in pursuing their interests in today’s competitive school environment. Self-confidence stems from opportunities given to students to put forth their ideas or thoughts into …

By Howard Lee By now, the advertisement by the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) about how betting on Germany could go wrong - and how it did eventually "go wrong" - had created such a monstrous string of jokes online that the humour would likely last us until the next World Cup. Admittedly, I care too little about football …