PSLE should not be abolished: poll






SINGAPORE: The majority of participants at a Our Singapore Conversation session at Jurong Central on Sunday agreed that the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) should not be abolished.

Nearly nine out of 10 who responded to the online poll said the PSLE is still relevant.

Ang Wei Neng, Member of Parliament for Jurong Group Representation Constituency commented: "They know that PSLE has stress, and may need to be tweaked to reduce the stress but most of them think that it's essential for (students) to distinguish their abilities so that they can choose the secondary school based on equal footing, on the PSLE results."

In another poll, most said they would like to see a good balance of economic growth and happiness for Singapore in 20 years' time.

This is the first time that an electronic vote was used in the Our Singapore Conversation session.

Some 600 students and parents participated in the dialogue.

- CNA/xq



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Lot to be done to strengthen Indo-Pak bilateral ties: Salman Khurshid

AMRITSAR: India and Pakistan government took some bold initiatives to further strengthen the bilateral ties between the two which includes easing out the visa regime and opening of Integrated Check Post at Attari (India)-Wagha (Pakistan) border but still lot was to be done and hopefully it would be achieved in the near future with sincere and relentless efforts, said Union external affairs minister Salman Khurshid in his opening remarks after inauguration of the 8th South Asian Free Media (SAFMA) Conference-2013 organized for the first time in Punjab.

On the occasion Salman assured the members of SAFMA that he would soon take up the matter with his ministry to sort out the issue of multiple visa to the journalists of SAARC countries.

He said he would also take up the issue of opening up of the corridor between Dera Baba Nanak (India) and Kartarpur Sahib (Pakistan) with the home ministry.

Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had taken up the issues of opening of corridor and another trade route through Hussainiwala border.

In his inaugural address, Badal said it was the need of the hour to eliminate all the physical barriers for the promotion of people to people contact to foster goodwill, friendship and amity in the South Asian Region.

He said that this could only be achieved by the sincere and concerted efforts of both the national governments of India and Pakistan.

Badal also urged SAFMA to take up the issue of opening of corridor with both the central governments of India and Pakistan.

Badal also supported the issue of unrestricted multiple visa to the media persons for their free movement across Asia and asked the ministry of external affairs to concede this long pending demand of media fraternity.

He sought the cooperation from SAFMA in setting up of the South Asian economic and parliamentary union which could lead to the formation of 'Asian Economic Union' on the lines of European Economic Union.

He said that in this context India and Pakistan could play a leading role as some remarkable progress had already been made in this directions by these two countries by opening the Attari-Wagha border for trade, although the scale of trade there was needed to be increased.

On the occasion, the president of Indian chapter of SAFMA, Vinod Sharma, gave a brief account of the activities of SAFMA in the country in general and in creating awareness of 'Asian Unity' by organizing a series of media events like conferences and media submits to promote peace, understanding and international cooperation especially amongst the SAARC countries.

Later, Salman Khurshid accompanied by Badal visited the Golden Temple to pay obeisance.

Badal presented a 'Siropa' (robe of honour), shawl, portrait of the Golden Temple and a set of religious books to Salman.

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Gun Show Near Newtown Goes on Despite Anger













A little more than 40 miles from Sandy Hook Elementary School, where last month 20 first graders and six staff members were massacred, gun dealers and collectors alike ignored calls to cancel a gun show, and gathered for business in Stamford, Conn.


Four other gun shows with an hour of Newtown, Conn., recently cancelled their events in the wake of the shootings, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza broke in to the elementary school with a semi-automatic assault rifle and three other guns.


The organizers in Stamford emphasized their show only displayed antique and collectible guns, not military style assault weapons like the one used by Lanza in Sandy Hook.


Still, Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia had called for the show to close its doors, calling it "insensitive" to hold so close to the murders.


Gun show participant Sandy Batchelor said he wasn't sure about whether going ahead with the show was "insensitive," but said the shooter should be blamed, not the weapons he used.


"I don't have a solid opinion on [whether it is insensitive]," Batchelor said. "I'm not for or against it. I would defend it by saying it wasnt the gun."


In nearby Waterbury, the community cancelled a show scheduled for this weekend.


"I felt that the timing of the gun show so close to that tragic event would be in bad taste," Waterbury Police Chief Chief Michael J. Gugliotti said.












National Rifle Association News Conference Interrupted by Protesters Watch Video





Gugliotti has halted permits for gun shows, saying he was concerned about firearms changing hands that might one day be used in a mass shooting.


Across the state line in White Plains, N.Y, Executive Rob Astorino also canceled a show, three years after ending a had that had been in place since the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado. He said he felt the show would be inappropriate now.


But across the country, farther away from Connecticut, attendance at gun shows is spiking, and some stores report they can hardly keep weapons on their shelves with some buyers fearful of that the federal government will soon increase restrictions on gun sales and possibly ban assault weapons altogether.


"We sold 50-some rifles in days," said Jonathan O'Connor, store manager of Gun Envy in Minnesota.


President Obama said after the Sandy Hook shooting that addressing gun violence would be one of his priorities and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she would introduce an assault weapons ban this month.


But it is not just traditional advocates of gun control that have said their need to be changes in gun laws since the horrific school shooting.


Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat but a long-time opponent of gun control who like Hutchison has received an A rating from the NRA, have both come out in support of strengthening gun laws.


In Stamford, gun dealer Stuart English said participants at the gun show there are doing nothing wrong.


"I have to make a living. Life goes on," gun dealer Stuart English said.


ABC News asked English, what he thought about the mayor of Stamford calling the show "insensitive."


"He's wrong," English said. "This is a private thing he shouldn't be expressing his opinion on."


If you have a comment on this story or have a story idea, you can tweet this correspondent @greenblattmark.


The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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Al Gore stands to gain about $70 million after selling Current TV to al-Jazeera



Al-Jazeera will pay about $500 million for Current TV, including the stake held by Gore, 64, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. The network is one of dozens of investments made by the former vice president since he lost the 2000 presidential race by a slim margin.


“It’s reeking with irony,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean at the Yale School of Management, who studies corporate governance. “It seems to be at least a paradox in terms of his positions on sustainability and geopolitics.”

The deal highlights Gore’s makeover from career politician to successful businessman. His take from the Current TV sale is many times the maximum net worth of $1.7 million he reported while running for president in 1999. Besides investing in start-ups, Gore is on the board of Apple, an adviser to Google and a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, according to his Web site biography.

“The green of money knows no political boundaries,” said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. “When you are running investments, your priority needs to be maximizing return.”

Gore’s holdings also include investments in Amazon.com, eBay and Procter & Gamble through his Generation Investment Management.

Gore holds a 20 percent stake in Current TV, according to those with knowledge of the deal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the sale terms are not public. His proceeds are difficult to pin down because the company had $41.4 million in debt, as well as preferred stock entitled to $99.5 million in the event of a sale or liquidation, according to a 2008 regulatory filing.

The Current TV price represents a sevenfold increase from the $71 million that Gore and his partners paid for the predecessor company in 2004, according to the filing. Gore, chairman, and Joel Hyatt, a co-founder and chief executive officer, announced the sale on Wednesday, without providing financial terms.

Kalee Kreider, a spokeswoman for Gore, didn’t respond to a phone call or e-mail request for comment.

The network’s investors included funds controlled by Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle and San Francisco money manager Richard Blum, according to the 2008 filing, when the company unsuccessfully sought to sell stock to the public. Blum is married to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

The Raine Group advised Current TV on the sale. The owners introduced Current TV in 2005 after purchasing the network from Vivendi.

Al-Jazeera is closely held and receives some funding from the government of Qatar, a small country on the eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula that gets almost half of its gross domestic product from oil and gas, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“Under Qatari law, Al Jazeera Media Network is incorporated as a private, non-profit company,” Charlotte Fouch, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. “Al Jazeera receives funding from the State of Qatar, much like other publicly funded broadcast networks.”

Last February, Gore said investors in oil and gas companies that ignore the cost of carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases are making a mistake similar to those who invested in subprime mortgages.

Most of Gore’s investments are made through Generation Investment Management, which he co-founded with former Goldman Sachs Group executive David Blood. The most recent regulatory filing lists about $3.6 billion under management in 29 publicly traded companies.

In addition, Generation Investment Management also has stakes in private ventures such as Nest Labs, a company formed by Apple alumni to create a thermostat that adapts to user behavior and saves money. The fund also backed Elon Musk’s SolarCity, a developer of rooftop solar power systems that went public last month.

In April, Gore’s fund was part of $110 million in venture capital invested in Harvest Power, a closely held company that produces renewable energy from waste such as food scraps.

He is also the author of the climate-change-focused best-sellers “Earth in the Balance,” “An Inconvenient Truth,” “The Assault on Reason” and “Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis.” Gore was the co-recipient, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for “informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change,” according to his official biography.

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Obama warns on "dangerous game" with debt ceiling






WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Saturday warned congressional Republicans against what he called a "dangerous game" with the country's economy as lawmakers prepared for a new battle over the national debt ceiling.

"As I said earlier this week, one thing I will not compromise over is whether or not Congress should pay the tab for a bill they've already racked up," the president said in his weekly radio and Internet address.

"If Congress refuses to give the United States the ability to pay its bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy could be catastrophic," he pointed out.

Obama recalled that the US economy "suffered" and congressional Republicans clashed over national debt in 2011, a row that resulted in a downgrade of the US credit rating.

"Our families and our businesses cannot afford that dangerous game again," the president said.

The United States reached its legal borrowing limit of US$16.4 trillion on Monday. Now Congress has about two months to raise the debt ceiling to allow more government borrowing or risk causing the government to default on its bills and financial obligations.

A bipartisan "fiscal cliff" deal passed by Congress later in the week did not address the debt ceiling issue.

Republicans, who accepted this deal without any significant spending cut, are now demanding concessions on expenditures in return for allowing the ceiling to rise.

House Speaker John Boehner has warned the Republicans will ask for "significant spending cuts" and reforms of expensive programs like Social Security and Medicare that provide pensions and health care services for the nation's seniors.

Obama said he was for spending cuts without shortchanging things like education, job training, research and technology.

"But spending cuts must be balanced with more reforms to our tax code," he said. "The wealthiest individuals and the biggest corporations shouldn't be able to take advantage of loopholes and deductions that aren't available to most Americans."

- AFP/xq



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Centre waives off bill for ITBP deployment to guard Kasab

MUMBAI: Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde today said the Centre had decided not to recover from Maharashtra government Rs 21 crore on account of deployment of Indo-Tibetan Border Police at Arthur Road Central Jail here to guard 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab.

Kasab was lodged in Arthur Road jail, where the trial of 26/11 case also took place, for four years, before he was shifted to Pune's Yerawada jail for execution last November.

Shinde today visited the Arthur Road jail and reviewed the security.

He said the state should spend the money — otherwise payable to the Centre — for prison reforms.

Maharashtra home minister R R Patil had written to the Centre saying that state alone should not bear the financial burden for Kasab's security.

Shinde today said he would be visiting all the major jails in the metro cities to review the security, and his next stop would be Tihar in New Delhi.

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Quadruple Amputee Gets Two New Hands on Life













It's the simplest thing, the grasp of one hand in another. But Lindsay Ess will never see it that way, because her hands once belonged to someone else.


Growing up in Texas and Virginia, Lindsay, 29, was always one of the pretty girls. She went to college, did some modeling and started building a career in fashion, with an eye on producing fashion shows.


Then she lost her hands and feet.


Watch the full show in a special edition of "Nightline," "To Hold Again," TONIGHT at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC


When she was 24 years old, Lindsay had just graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University's well-regarded fashion program when she developed a blockage in her small intestine from Crohn's Disease. After having surgery to correct the problem, an infection took over and shut down her entire body. To save her life, doctors put her in a medically-induced coma. When she came out of the coma a month later, still in a haze, Lindsay said she knew something was wrong with her hands and feet.


"I would look down and I would see black, almost like a body that had decomposed," she said.


The infection had turned her extremities into dead tissue. Still sedated, Lindsay said she didn't realize what that meant at first.








Quadruple Amputee Undergoes Hand Transplant Surgery Watch Video









After Hand Transplant, Relearning How to Hold Watch Video







"There was a period of time where they didn't tell me that they had to amputate, but somebody from the staff said, 'Oh honey, you know what they are going to do to your hands, right?' That's when I knew," she said.


After having her hands and feet amputated, Lindsay adapted. She learned how to drink from a cup, brush her teeth and even text on her cellphone with her arms, which were amputated just below the elbow.


"The most common questions I get are, 'How do you type,'" she said. "It's just like chicken-pecking."


PHOTOS: Lindsay Ess Gets New Hands


Despite her progress, Lindsay said she faced challenges being independent. Her mother, Judith Aronson, basically moved back into her daughter's life to provide basic care, including bathing, dressing and feeding. Having also lost her feet, Lindsay needed her mother to help put on her prosthetic legs.


"I've accepted the fact that my feet are gone, that's acceptable to me," Lindsay said. "My hands [are] not. It's still not. In my dreams I always have my hands."


Through her amputation recovery, Lindsay discovered a lot of things about herself, including that she felt better emotionally by not focusing on the life that was gone and how much she hated needing so much help but that she also truly depends on it.


"I'm such an independent person," she said. "But I'm also grateful that I have a mother like that, because what could I do?"


Lindsay said she found that her prosthetic arms were a struggle.


"These prosthetics are s---," she said. "I can't do anything with them. I can't do anything behind my head. They are heavy. They are made for men. They are claws, they are not feminine whatsoever."


For the next couple of years, Lindsay exercised diligently as part of the commitment she made to qualify for a hand transplant, which required her to be in shape. But the tough young woman now said she saw her body in a different way now.






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Tennis: China's Li Na cruises to Shenzhen final






BEIJING: Chinese tennis star Li Na cruised into the final of the Shenzhen Open with a straight sets victory in her semi-final match on Friday, putting her in pole position to claim her seventh WTA singles title.

The world number seven is the firm favourite to take the trophy on home soil on Saturday when she faces off against Czech Klara Zakopalova, who is ranked 21 places below her.

The Chinese number one and top seed beat compatriot Peng Shuai 6-4, 6-0 in one hour 13 minutes to set up the final with fifth seed Zakapalova, who had earlier defeated Romanian Monica Niculescu.

Zakapalova took just one hour six minutes to claim a 6-1, 6-3 victory in her semi-final.

The Shenzhen Open - carrying total prize money of $500,000 - is being played for the first time as tennis expands in China on the back of Li's huge popularity.

Li's last singles title was at the 2012 Western and Southern Open in the United States in August - her first since she became a sporting icon in her own country by winning the 2011 French Open.

- AFP/de



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