1. Orchard Road’s first Pedestrian Night kicked off last Saturday (Oct 4) with Tennis Pops Up, a full-scale tennis carnival with live demonstration matches and roving performances. The event saw the public wandering along roads usually reserved for traffic, and lots of tennis-related activities. While most seemed to enjoy Orchard’s pedestrianization, others found it a tight squeeze (hardly surprising given that visitors numbered nearly 3000). We sure hope there’s a crowd-control plan for the holiday season.
2. Singapore’s environmental rankings aren’t looking too good, at least not according to the latest Living Planet Report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Our country was found to have the seventh highest ecological footprint, as a result of high levels of carbon emission and an increasing rate of resource consumption. Given our long-recognized status as a “ Clean and Green” nation, we’d say much more has to be done in order to live up to the title.
3. Other than being one of 74 reasons to revisit Kallang, the Sports Hub has just been awarded the best sports building at the prestigious World Architectural Festival. It’s a pretty impressive accomplishment, given that it beat out other five other competitors from cities like Taiwan and Chicago. The hub’s also up for the festival’s “Building of the Year” award which will be announced this Friday, so our fingers are crossed for more good news.
4. Animal lovers will be happy to know that the 13 puppies smuggled through Woodlands Checkpoint are in prime health during their quarantine period. The puppies were discovered in several compartments of a Singaporean-registered vehicle last month, with this incident being the second thwarted animal smuggling attempt this year. Those looking to adopt the canines will be disappointed though—authorities are already working out a plan to return them to Malaysia.
5. In other serious news, 18-year-old Thai national Nitcharee Peneakchanasak’s appeal to claim $3.4 million worth of damages from SMRT and the Land Transport Authority(LTA) was dismissed by the Court of Appeals. The teenager lost both her legs after accidentally falling onto train tracks three years ago. According to the presiding judges, the failure to provide platform screen doors did not constitute negligence, with the station being reasonably safe for public usage.
