Total Defence Day

Schools are required to commemorate 4 core NE events which have been identified as defining moments in Singapores history.

The aim is to entrench these events and the images they envoke in the consciousness in each successive generation.

Schools commemorate Feburaury 15th as Total Defense Day in Singapore to remind them of the day that the country fell to the Japnese in 1942.

For more information on this topic or the other 3 NE events please follow the link http://www.en.edu.sg/core_events

LinkedIn opens Asia headquarters in Singapore

Career Networking website is to open in Singapore, as part of a plan to tap the regions large pool of professionals.

The companys users in Asia grew 130% in the year ending in March bringing total members of the region to 18 million out of more than 100 million world wide.

Linkedin was started in 2003 and was first based in Mountain View, California.

For more information on Linkedin check out the following link http://www.longislandpress.com

Air care market in Singapore sees a stronger current value growth of 3% in 2010 to reach $21 million

With the recovery of the economy, aircare saw a stronger current growth rate.

Together with increasing affluence, consumers demanded luxury products such as air freshners. Gel air freshners continued to enjoyed the fasest growth rate in 2010 compared to 2009. The air freshners continue to enjoy the fasest growth rate of 5% in 2010.

For more information on these growth rates please check out the following link http://www.transworldnews

The most common and iconic Thai classical music that symbolizes the dancing of the Thailand's legendary dragons, a midsized orchestra including two xylophones , an oboe , barrel drums and two circular sets of tuned horizontal gong-chimes. Piphat can be performed in either a loud outdoor style using hard mallets or in an indoor style using padded hammers. There are several types of piphat ensembles ranging in size and orchestration, each kind typically being associated with specific ceremonial purposes. The highly decorated piphat ensemble that features the ornately carved and painted semicircular vertical gong-chime is traditionally associated with the funeral and cremation ceremonies of the Mon ethnic group. Different versions of the piphat ensemble are employed to accompany specific forms of traditional Thai drama such as the large shadow puppet theater and the khon dance drama.

Thai Tats

Thailand has ordered a crackdown on foreign tourists having religious images tattooed on their bodies while visiting the kingdom, official media said on Wednesday.
Tattoos with images such as of the Buddha may offend Thai people, Culture Minister Nipit Intarasombat was quoted as telling reporters.
He said his ministry had asked regional governors, particularly in tourist hotspots, to inspect tattoo studios and ask them not to use religious patterns, according to the state-run National News Bureau.
It said he would push for a law banning people from etching sacred images onto their skin.

Wat Suthat

Wat Suthat was constructed in 1807 after the 27th anniversary of the founding of Bangkok by King Rama I. The main wihan is surrounded by a cirulambutory area of three levels. On the uppermost level are mounted small chapels for each of its fours corners. Phra Sisakayamuni, the main Buddha image, is larger and older than any other bronze cast Buddha image in Thailand. The base of the image is 6.25 metres wide and has a height of 8 metres.

American Faces More Than 15-Year Sentence in Thailand for Insulting Monarchy

Thai police have arrested U.S. citizen Lerpong Wichaikhammat, 54, and charged him with defaming the revered monarchy for an alleged offense dating to a four-year-old post on his blog.Insulting the monarchy, known as "Lese Majeste", is a serious crime in Thailand that is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Rights groups and academics have criticized the controversial law and say Thai authorities abuse it for political purposes.The alleged offense appears to have occurred years ago, when he was living in the U.S. state of Colorado, where he spent 30 years.Thai police say Lerpong, who also goes by the name Joe Gordon in the United States, provided a link on his blog in 2007 to the book "The King Never Smiles."The unauthorized biography of 83-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej is deemed critical of the Thai royal family and is banned in Thailand.Gordon was arrested on Tuesday in northeastern Nakhon Ratchasimaand province where he has been living for the past year. In addition to the Lese Majeste charge, he is accused of violating Thailand's Computer Crimes Act for committing Lese Majeste online.It is not clear why authorities decided to arrest Gordon now, but rights activists say there has been increasing use of the law to silence critical voices and political opponents.Benjamin Zawacki, Asia researcher for Amnesty International, spoke about the controversial law this week at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand."Although the Lese Majeste law has been on the books for decades, during Thailand's ongoing political crisis, which began in late 2005, it has been used more vigorously amidst a worsening climate for political expression," said Zawacki.A spokesman at the United States Embassy in Bangkok says a consular official visited Gordon on Friday and that they are following his case closely.Zawacki says the law, as currently drafted, means Thailand is violating its international legal obligations to protect freedom of speech and that it should be changed.Thai authorities say the strict law is necessary to protect the revered monarchy from slanderous attack and to ensure national security.Zawacki says it is clearly a legal and factual stretch to claim that an insulting remark could compromise the security of the nation.Rights groups and academics have decried authorities" increasing use of the law to silence critics and opposition politicians.A Thai historian and an editor of opposition Red Shirt news magazines were recently charged with Lese Majeste.Thai authorities have also charged 18 leaders of the Red Shirts movement.Gordon would not be the first to be charged with Lese Majeste for posting someone else's writing.The editor of the online magazine Prachatai, Chiranuch Premchaiporn, was charged last year on several counts of Lese Majeste for bloggers" postings on her website.Authorities say that although she did not post them herself, she did not remove the offending messages quickly enough and could be sentenced to several decades in prison.

On April 21^st 2011 Tul Bahadur Pun, a Gurkha solider in the British army, died at age 88. Although his age was reported as 88, he could have been up towards 92 due to poor record keepings at the time. During his service in the British army in World War II, he saved several of his colleagues during a skirmish in Burma which earned him the Victoria Cross. He was eventually granted the right to live in the UK and settled in Chiswick, west London. He had returned to Nepal to witness the completion of a school in his home town when he suffered respiratory problems and died.

Kathmandu

The modern day city of Kathmandu is the site of two ancient cities, Koligrama (The Village of the Kolis) and Dakshinakoligrama (The South Village of the Kolis). During the time of Buddha, these villages were known as political and commercial centers of trade and were located along Nepal’s main trade route of the time.

Thai Revolution

A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th century. Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been taken over by a European power. A bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy. In alliance with Japan during World War II, Thailand became a US treaty ally in 1954 after sending troops to Korea and fighting alongside the US in Vietnam. A military coup in September 2006 ousted then Prime Minister THAKSIN Chinnawat.