GIC names Lim Chow Kiat as new group CIO

SINGAPORE: The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) has named Lim Chow Kiat as its next group chief investment officer, effective 1 February 2013.

GIC said in a statement on Friday that Mr Lim will succeed Mr Ng Kok Song who is retiring.

Mr Lim, 42, is currently GIC's deputy group chief investment officer. He joined the sovereign wealth fund in 1993 after graduating with first class honours in accountancy from Nanyang Technological University.

He was appointed head of GIC's Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities Department, as well as deputy president of GIC Asset Management (GAM) in 2008.

He became president of GAM in July 2011 and deputy group CIO in April 2012.

- CNA/al

Read More..

1 pilot, 3 airhostesses found drunk since Christmas

NEW DELHI: The fear of losing their flying licence led to pilots celebrating Yuletide and ushering in the New Year on a sober note this year. Authorities caught only one pilot — but three airhostesses — reporting to work in an inebriated state during breathalyser (BA) tests done at airports from Christmas to Wednesday.

All four flight personnel were from Jet Airways. "We have a zero tolerance policy for this issue and carry out strict BA tests. Whoever fails the tests is, as per DGCA guidelines, suspended for three months," said aJet spokesperson.

A DGCA official said two flight crew members failed the BA test in Chennai and one each in Delhi and Kochi. "The punishment is very severe now for pilots failing BA tests as their licence is suspended for three months when caught first time and for five years for the second time. This means end of flying career as a five-year suspension will lead to all eligibilities lapsing," he added.

Read More..

Pictures We Love: Best of 2012

Photograph by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/AP

Powder-splattered, and powder-splattering, runners cross the finish line of The Color Run 5K in Irvine, California, on April 22. Each kilometer (0.6 mile) of the event features a color-pelting station dedicated to a single hue, culminating in the Pollock-esque riot at kilometer 5.

The "magical color dust" is completely safe, organizers say, though they admit it's "surprisingly high in calories and leaves a chalky aftertaste."

See more from April 2012 >>

Why We Love It

"Vibrant color floating through the air automatically brings to mind festive Holi celebrations in India. We expect to see revelers in Mumbai but instead find a surprise in the lower third of the frame—runners in California!"—Sarah Polger, senior photo editor

"There are a lot of eye-catching photographs of the festival of Holi in India that show colored powder in midair, but this particular situation has the people all lined up in a row—making it easy to see each of their very cinematic facial expressions."—Chris Combs, news photo editor

Published January 3, 2013

Read More..

Ex-USC Player: Painkiller Injections Caused Heart Attack

Despite stated label risks of possible fatal heart attack, stroke or organ failure, college football players across the country are still being given injections of a powerful painkiller on game days so they can play while injured, an ABC News investigation has found.

The drug, a generic version of Toradol, is recommended for the short-term treatment of post-operative pain in hospitals but has increasingly been used in college and professional sports, and its use is not monitored by the NCAA, the governing body of college sports.

Only two of the country's top football programs, Oklahoma and the University of Nebraska, reported to ABC News that they have limited or stopped the use of the drug in the wake of growing concern about its risks.

Which Top-Ranked College Football Teams Use Toradol?

Oklahoma said it stopped using the painkillers in 2012 after using them repeatedly in 2010 and 2011.

Nebraska said its doctors now restrict its use.

SEND TIPS About Painkiller Use in College Sports to Our Tipline

"While team physicians reserve the option to use injectable Toradol, it is rarely prescribed, and its use has been avoided this season following reports of heightened concern of potential adverse effects," Nebraska said in a statement to ABC News.

Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

Despite Risks, College Football Still Uses Powerful Painkiller Watch Video

The top two college football programs, Notre Dame and Alabama, refused to answer questions from ABC News about the painkiller. They play for the national college championship on Jan. 7.

Controversy surrounding the drug has grown this year following claims by former USC lineman Armond Armstead that he suffered a heart attack after the 2010 season, at age 20, following shots of generic Toradol administered over the course of the season by the team doctor and USC personnel.

"I thought, you know, can't be me, you know? This doesn't happen to kids like me," Armstead told ABC News.

The manufacturers' warning label for generic Toradol (ketorolac tromethamine) says the drug is not intended for prolonged periods or for chronic pain and cites gastrointestinal bleeding and kidney failure as possible side effects of the drug.

In addition, like other drugs in its class, the generic Toradol label warns "may cause an increased risk of serious cardiovascular thrombotic events, myocardial infarction (heart attack), and stroke, which can be fatal."

"This risk may increase with duration of use," the so-called black box warning reads.

In a lawsuit against the school and the doctor, Dr. James Tibone, Armstead claims the school ignored the stated risks of the drug and never told him about them.

"He was a race horse, a prize race horse that needed to be on that field no matter what," said Armstead's mother Christa. "Whether that was a risk to him or not."

Armstead says he and many other USC players would receive injections of what was known only as "the shot" in a specific training room before big games and again at half-time.

"No discussion, just go in. He would give the shot and I would be on my way," Armstead told ABC News.

Armstead said the shot made him feel "super human" despite severe ankle, and later shoulder pain, and that without it, he never could have played in big USC games against Notre Dame and UCLA.

"You can't feel any pain, you just feel amazing," the former star player said.

USC declined to comment on Armstead's claims, or the use of Toradol to treat Trojan players.

An ABC News crew and reporter were ordered off the practice field when they tried to question USC coach Lane Kiffin about the use of the painkiller. USC says the ABC News crew was told to leave because they had not submitted the appropriate paperwork in advance to attend the practice session.

Read More..

Creative industry in China on the rise

SHANGHAI: The creative industry is becoming a new growth area of the Chinese economy.

As one of the cities boasting the fastest growth in this sector, Shanghai's municipal government is injecting another US$32 million to further support its development.

Located in one of Shanghai's creative industry parks, KRT is a young local design firm. It is known for doing detailed work that showcases its customers' unique character.

From a three-member team redesigning apartment bathrooms, it now has 20 employees and focuses on high-end residential design and construction projects in the millions of dollars.

Kevin Hsu, design director of KRT Architecture & Interior Design Co., said: "In the past few years, we moved up from doing designs for small projects to big ones for really high-end customers. We don't need to do as many projects as we used to. Instead, we only need five to 10 projects a year to achieve the same amount of growth and profit as before."

Located five minutes away is Adopted -- formed only four months ago. It makes phone accessories which are sold by Apple.

Its small size did not stand in the way of a collaboration with the tech giant.

David Watkins, founder of Adopted, said: "Pretty much the entire team has a lot of experience working for building products for the Apple's retail eco-system. And as a small company, we are able to react and be a lot more nimble than a lot of larger companies."

According to CCID Consulting, China's largest consulting firm, the value of the creative industry in China exceeded US$172 billion in 2011, and the average annual growth rate was more than 26 per cent over the past five years.

This growth can be attributed to the higher value placed on the industry amid the realisation that China needs to move beyond just manufacturing.

In recent years, China's central and local governments have launched various plans to support the industry -- including encouraging schools to set up creative industry departments, and giving subsidies and tax relief to companies in this sector.

For example, Shanghai has just injected another US$32 million into the industry, which will be used to grow the industry, including training more local talents and attracting overseas talents to come to Shanghai.

The total value of the sector in China is expected to reach US$331 billion by 2014 - almost double its current value.

-CNA/ac

Read More..

Pictures: Errant Shell Oil Rig Runs Aground Off Alaska, Prompts Massive Response

Photograph courtesy Jonathan Klingenberg, U.S. Coast Guard

Waves lash at the sides of the Shell* drilling rig Kulluk, which ran aground off the rocky southern coast of Alaska on New Year's Eve in a violent storm.

The rig, seen above Tuesday afternoon, was "stable," with no signs of spilled oil products, authorities said. But continued high winds and savage seas hampered efforts to secure the vessel and the 150,000 gallons (568,000 liters) of diesel fuel and lubricants on board. The Kulluk came to rest just east of Sitkalidak Island (map), an uninhabited but ecologically and culturally rich site north of Ocean Bay, after a four-day odyssey, during which it broke free of its tow ships and its 18-member crew had to be rescued by helicopter.

The U.S. Coast Guard, state, local, and industry officials have joined in an effort involving nearly 600 people to gain control of the rig, one of two that Shell used for its landmark Arctic oil-drilling effort last summer. "This must be considered once of the largest marine-response efforts conducted in Alaska in many years," said Steve Russell, of Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation.

The 266-foot (81-meter) rig now is beached off one of the larger islands in the Kodiak archipelago, a land of forest, glaciers, and streams about 300 miles (482 kilometers) south of Anchorage. The American Land Conservancy says that Sitkalidak Island's highly irregular coastline traps abundant food sources upwelling from the central Gulf of Alaska, attracting large numbers of seabirds and marine mammals. The largest flock of common murres ever recorded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was in Sitkalidak Strait, which separates the island from Kodiak. Sitkalidak also has 16 wild salmon rivers and archaeological sites tied to the Alutiiq native peoples dating back more than 7,000 years.

Shell incident commander Susan Childs said Monday night that the company's wildlife management team had started to assess the potential impact of a spill, and would be dispatched to the site when the weather permitted. She said the Kulluk's fuel tanks were in the center of the vessel, encased in heavy steel. "The Kulluk is a pretty sturdy vessel," she said. " It just remains to be seen how long it's on the shoreline and how long the weather is severe."

—Marianne Lavelle

*Shell is sponsor of National Geographic's Great Energy Challenge initiative. National Geographic maintains editorial autonomy.

Published January 2, 2013

Read More..

Tax Deal Done - but How Can Obama Sign It?

Jan 2, 2013 6:29pm

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

Congress officially delivered the bill to avert the fiscal cliff to the White House this afternoon, House Speaker John Boehner’s office told ABC News.

Now the question is when will the President sign it?

The bill, passed late on New Year’s Day, expires tomorrow at 11:59 a.m. when the current session of Congress concludes. If President Obama doesn’t sign it by then, constitutionally the bill is dead.

But this evening, eighteen hours before the deadline, the President is on a golf course in Hawaii.  And the bill is in Washington at the White House.

Administration officials won’t say what they will do despite repeated inquiries from ABC News.

There seem to be two options:  1) An Air Force jet can deliver the bill to Hawaii (better leave quickly!) in time for the President to sign it before 11:59 Eastern Standard Time; or, 2) The White House can use a presidential “auto-pen.”

The simple mechanical device uses a template of the presidential signature to scrawl it on paper if activated by the White House at Obama’s direction.

But would an auto-pen – usually used to sign insignificant correspondence and photographs – pass constitutional muster?  We don’t know.  The question has never been tested by the courts.

A 2005 legal study commissioned by former President George W. Bush determined that use of the autopen is constitutional but acknowledged the possibility that its use could be challenged.  Bush never used the autopen, officials from his administration told ABC.

President Obama is only believed to have used the autopen once to sign a piece of major legislation — the 2011 extension of the Patriot Act — which reached his desk while he was on a diplomatic trip to Europe. Officials invoked national security concerns to justify the move.

Use of the autopen has been controversial.  Conservative groups alleged last summer that Obama used an autopen to sign condolence letters to the families of Navy SEALs killed in a Chinook crash in Afghanistan — a charge the White House disputed flatly as false.

In 2004, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was criticized for using an autopen to sign condolence letters to the families of fallen troops.

And in 1992 then-Vice President Dan Quayle even got into some hot water over his use of the autopen on official correspondence during an appearance on “This Week with David Brinkley.” More HERE.

ABC News’ Ann Compton and Devin Dwyer contributed reporting.

SHOWS: World News

Read More..

Helping VA rehabilitate those with multiple wounds of war

Micaela Cornis-Pop oversees more than 110 rehabilitation facilities around the country, helping the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) stay at the forefront of developments in treating traumatic brain injury and other medical injuries and issues facing injured veterans and military service members.

With the increase in battlefield survival rates of military personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, service members live with more complex casualties, which led the VA to coin the word “polytrauma” to describe multiple injuries to one person, the most prevalent of which is traumatic brain injury, but also can include post-traumatic stress disorder, multiple amputations, burns, auditory and visual impairments and mental health issues.

In 2005, Cornis-Pop helped conceive, develop and implement the VA’s Polytrauma System of Care, an integrated network of facilities that provide specialized programs to help wounded men and women recover, and move from acute care to outpatient rehabilitation and reintegration into the community. She now leads and manages the system, developing policies and procedures and monitoring their implementation.

“We have a direct impact on how health care is delivered and is impacting veterans and service members, and that is tremendously gratifying,” said Cornis-Pop, national program manager of the Polytrauma System of Care at the Veterans Health Administration, Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Services, at the VA.

She also is responsible for providing education opportunities for VA health care providers who treat traumatic brain injuries. And the system works with another 39 VA locations that provide some, but not all elements of comprehensive polytrauma rehabilitation care, to define the care those facilities can provide and help make the decision when to refer patients to another level of care.

In addition, Cornis-Pop was the lead author and editor of a “massive project” to publish a 166-page book that came out in April 2010, which serves as an accredited independent study course on traumatic brain injury for members of VA health care teams around the country, said Joel Scholten, director of Special Projects at the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Program Office (PM&R), which manages the Polytrauma System of Care. Nearly 12,000 clinicians have completed the course between April 2010 and July 2012, using either the book or a Web version of it.

Cornis-Pop “has the innate ability to pull people together and get focused on a task and think creatively, and, most amazingly, develop an end product that is useful and veteran-centric,” Scholten said. “She develops programs and projects that have been sustained because they are clinically relevant. It’s not just policy that is developed and sits there.”

Dr. David Cifu, national director of the PM&R office, not only relies on Cornis-Pop to coordinate the care programs around the country but also to respond to outside requests for information, including from Congress. “She’s the person who makes it all happen,” he said. “She doesn’t care about getting credit. She just gets things done. That’s gold.”

Read More..

New path for mid-career professionals to join accounting industry

SINGAPORE: Mid-career professionals in Singapore without accounting work experience or accounting-related qualifications can now be hired and trained as accounts or audit professionals.

This has been made possible by a new pilot programme, a result of a partnership between NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) and professional accounting body CPA Australia.

Under the programme, e2i will provide participating employers training allowances and subsidise up to 70 per cent of course fees for successful candidates. Employers that hire candidates for professional accounting roles under this programme can apply for training support of up to S$8,450 per eligible employee.

Employers will commit to offer jobs to successful candidates on a permanent and full-time basis.

The candidates will also have starting salaries of at least S$2,000, and receive a basic salary increase of at least 15 per cent when they complete the programme.

During their training, candidates will enrol in the CPA Programme Foundation Level course, which will equip them with the necessary basic accounting knowledge. It also provides them with a direct pathway to advance to the Professional Level course, which will confer the globally-recognised CPA Australia professional accounting designation.

Candidates will also undergo six months of on-the-job training with participating employers.

Mr Gilbert Tan, acting CEO of e2i, said: "e2i creates employment and employability solutions for PMEs interested in developing their careers. This Place-and-Train programme for accounts and audit professionals was initiated to help address the manpower needs of the accounting sector, as well as provide a way for locals to tap into accounting or audit-related job opportunities."

Mr Melvin Yong, Singapore General Manager of CPA Australia, said: "As Singapore positions itself to become a global accountancy hub, this partnership between CPA Australia and e2i will provide an ideal doorway for those in mid-careers looking for an opportunity to join the accounting profession.

"For employers, this is a potential avenue to recruit experienced staff amidst Singapore's current tight labour market."

The programme is part of the labour movement's continuous outreach to professionals in the financial and business services cluster.

-CNA/ac

Read More..

NHAI slams GMR for termination notice for biggest highway project

NEW DELHI: National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has hit back at infrastructure major GMR on its termination notice for the country's biggest highway project worth at least Rs 6,000 crore. The Authority in its reply to GMR has said that the company did not give 90-day cure period (to rectify and address the deficiencies), and how it is in violation of the norms laid down in the concession agreement.

NHAI was to respond to the GMR notice to exit from Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad project by January 4. GMR has cited NHAI's failure to get environmental clearance for the 555-km highway project and to notify the revised toll rate on this stretch being widened from four to six lanes.

"The notice served on us had several deficiencies, and we have spelt them out clearly. The revised toll notification has been done and environment clearance will be obtained in the next few days," said a senior NHAI official.

Sources said that the toll notification was done after highways minister C P Joshi held a meeting at his residence on Monday evening and the environment and forest ministry (MoEF) has been approached to convene a special meeting of the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) to grant clearance.

The project has huge significance considering it being the country's first mega highway project. In addition, if the contract gets cancelled, NHAI would directly lose revenue of Rs 636 crore annually, which increases 5% every successive year. The Authority's own estimate shows the total revenue during the entire contract period would be at least Rs 9,000 crore at net present value.

Indications abound that in case GMR still decides to opt out of the project, NHAI would forfeit the company's bank guarantee along with other harsh steps. "We don't want this to be a precedent for other concessionaires who would show delay in environment clearance to exit from the project and consequently forcing us to rebid them," said a senior ministry official.

NHAI also seems to use this case to draw MoEF's attention to fast track green clearance, highlighting the laxity on the green ministry's part to grant such nods. NHAI chairman R P Singh wrote to MoEF secretary V Raja Gopalan on December 24, "Any delay on our part in giving environment clearance can be construed as an indirect support to the contention of the concessionaire" while seeking his personal invention to convene a special meeting of the FAC.

According to NHAI, the project got environment clearance in early June, with a rider that stage-1 of forest clearance for the venture is obtained. This requires diversion of 37.62 hectares reserved forest and 40.39 hectares of protected forest that fall in Rajasthan. The state government has processed and sent its proposal in mid-November. Even after some of the queries of MoEF were cleared, the proposal was not placed before the FAC that met on December 21 and 22.

A part of the project also falls in Gujarat, and hence forest diversion is required for 173.39 hectares. NHAI officials said that the Gujarat government has given its nod after the poll code for the assembly election was lifted.

Read More..