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Singapore is linked to the Asian mainland by a
causeway.
(SFEC, 12/20/98, p.T2)
In 1999 the city-sate of Singapore had a population of 3.7
million.
(WSJ, 6/2/99, p.A1)
1781 Jul 5,
Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore, was born.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1819 Singapore was declared a free
port after it was taken over by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, an officer
of the British East India Co. Sultan Hussein was enthroned by the
British but he never ruled. Raffles laid out the city into ethnic zones.
(WSJ, 11/12/96, p.A18)(WSJ, 7/22/99,
p.A23)(SFCM, 3/11/01, p.70)(SSFC, 2/07/04, p.C9)
1834 Sultan Hussein left Singapore
for the Malaysian port of Melaka.
(WSJ, 7/22/99, p.A23)
1835 Sultan Hussein died at Melaka.
(WSJ, 7/22/99, p.A23)
1854 Alfred Russel Wallace began
his historic study of Malay flora and fauna in and around Bukit Timah
hill in Singapore.
(NH, 4/1/04, p.56)
1867
Apr 1, Singapore, Penang & Malakka became
British crown colonies.
(OTD)
1887 The Raffles Hotel was built
in Singapore. It was restored in 1991.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.C11)
1900 British rulers set up the
Kampung Baru (new village) enclave in Kuala Lumpur as an exclusive
preserve for Malays.
(WSJ, 8/18/04, p.A7)
1937 Lee Kuan Yew became prime
minister.
(SFC, 6/8/96, p.A11)
1941 Feb 8, Japanese armored
barges crossed the Strait of Johore to attack Singapore.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1941 Dec 8, Japanese General
Yamashita began his attack against the British army at Singapore.
General Tomoyuki Yamashita earned the name "Tiger of Malaya" for his
masterful capture of Singapore and the whole Malay Peninsula from the
British, who had a superior number of troops. Yamashita’s forces
landed on the northern Malay Peninsula and southern Thailand on
December 8, 1941, and moved rapidly southward toward Singapore, which
surrendered on February 15, 1942. The peninsula and Singapore remained
under Japanese control throughout the war. Later in the war, while
defending the Philippines from Gen. MacArthur‘s return, Yamashita's
troops wantonly slaughtered more than 100,000 Filipinos in Manila. He
was later tried and executed for war crimes.
(HN, 12/8/98)(HNQ, 4/5/00)
1942 Feb 8, The Japanese landed on
Singapore. By 1941, Gen. Yamashita was the commanding general of
Japan’s Twenty-Fifth Army. His plans for taking Singapore were already
underway.
(HN, 2/7/97)
1942 Feb 15, British forces in
Singapore surrendered to Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita. Yamashita
prevailed, when British Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur Percival and 130,000 Empire
troops surrendered. It was the largest surrender in British history.
(HN, 2/15/98)(AP, 2/15/98)
1945-1949 A series of wars for independence during
this period spread from India to Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and
Singapore. In 2007 Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper authored “Forgotten
Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia.”
(WSJ, 8/9/07, p.D7)
1955 Jul 1, Singapore’s government
started the Central Provident Fund, a compulsory comprehensive social
security savings plan. It required contributions from both employees
and employers.
(Econ, 4/3/10, SR
p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Provident_Fund)
1960 Lee Kuan Yew began ruling
Singapore and served until 1990.
(SFC, 8/6/01, p.A8)
1963 Jul 9, Federation of Malaysia
formed under bitter opposition from Indonesia. Indonesia refused to
recognize the country and waged a guerrilla war against it. Race riots
erupted between ethnic Malays and the Chinese majority. [see Sep 16]
(MC, 7/9/02)(HNQ, 5/14/98)(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.C10)
1963 Sep 16, The Federation of
Malaysia was formally established. It joined Malaya, Singapore,
Sarawak, and North Borneo with Tunku Abdul Rahman (60) as prime
minister.
(PC, 1992, p.988)
1964 Aug 25, Singapore
limited imports from Netherlands due to Indonesian aggression.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1965 Aug 9, Singapore proclaimed
its independence from the Malaysian Federation. Singapore became
independent from Britain and was booted from the Malayan federation.
Lee Kuan Yew became the new prime minister.
(AP,
8/9/97)(WSJ,6/11/96,p.A9A)(SFC,6/8/96,p.A11)(WSJ,12/31/96, p.1)
1967 Aug 8, The Association of
Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN was established in Bangkok by the five
original Member Countries, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines,
Singapore, and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam joined on 8 January
1984, Vietnam on 28 July 1995, Laos and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and
Cambodia on 30 April 1999.
(www.aseansec.org/64.htm)
1972 The Jehovah’s Witnesses were
banned because their male followers refused compulsory military duty.
(SFC, 7/2/96, p.A10)
1974 Temasek (Malay for sea town)
was founded to hold Singapore’s investments in various businesses. In
2004 it employed 170,000 people under Ho Ching and controlled a fifth
of the local stock market. In 2009 Charles Goodyear was named to
success Ho Ching, becoming the first foreigner to lead the sovereign
wealth fund.
(Econ, 8/14/04, p.65)(Econ, 2/14/09, p.86)
1977 May, In Singapore Lee Kuan
Yew (b.1923) won a barely contested bi-election as his People’s Action
Party won every seat in the legislature. Lee then moved against
journalists and human rights activists who had irritated him during the
campaign.
(SFC, 9/21/02, p.A18)(http://rulers.org/indexl2.html)
1977 Jun 27, H.E. Lee Kuan Yew,
the PM of Singapore, formally opened the Fourth Meeting of the ASEAN
Economic Ministers which was held in Singapore on 27-29 June 1977.
(www.aseansec.org/1287.htm)
1981 Aug 23, Devan Nair
(1923-2005) was elected by Parliament to serve as Singapore’s 3rd
president. He stepped down in 1985 following a sex scandal.
(Econ, 12/24/05,
p.122)(www.answers.com/topic/devan-nair)
1981 Joshua B. Jeyaretnam
(1926-2008), a Workers Party lawmaker, became Singapore's first
opposition politician to be elected to Parliament. He was driven to
bankruptcy in 2001 by defamation lawsuits brought by PM Lee Kuan Yew,
his son his son Lee Hsien Loong, and Goh Chok Tong, who served as prime
minister after the elder Lee stepped down in 1990 until the son took
over in 2004.
(AP, 10/1/08)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.118)
1981 Singapore implemented a
managed float for its currency. It pegged its dollar to a basket of
currencies that mirrored its trading patterns. The Monetary Authority
of Singapore does not announce the contents of the basket. It just
tweaks the mix as needed.
(WSJ, 5/23/05, p.C16)
1981 The Government of Singapore
Investment corp. was founded to run the nation’s foreign-exchange
reserves. By 2008 it had well over $100 billion in assets.
(WSJ, 1/16/08, p.A10)
1983 Singapore’s PM Lee Kuan Yew
ended the “stop at two” policy, initiated in the 1960s, and started
promoting larger families.
(Econ, 9/18/10, p.60)
1985 Mar, Devan Nair resigned as
president of Singapore in the wake of a sex scandal.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.122)(Econ, 1/21/06, p.14)
1986 Motorola opened shop in
Singapore.
(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A1)
1990 Goh Chok Tong succeeded Lee
Kuan Yew as the Prime Minister.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.B1)
1990 The US and Singapore signed a
memorandum that gave American military forces access to facilities at
Paya Lebar Airport and Sembawang naval port.
(SFC, 1/16/98, p.B4)
1991 Singapore banned chewing gum.
[see 1992]
(NW, 8/4/03, p.10)
1992 Jan 4, President Bush,
visiting Singapore as part of a Pacific trade tour, announced plans to
shift to Singapore the Navy logistics command that was being evicted
from the Philippines.
(AP, 1/4/02)
1992 Singapore invoked a ban on
chewing gum because it messed up the streets and subway doors.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A16)
1993 China Aviation Oil, CAO
Singapore, was incorporated as a shipping agency.
(WSJ, 12/6/04, p.A12)
1993-1999 Ong Teng Cheong (d.2002 at 66) of the
people’s Action Party served as president.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A22)
1994 May 5, Singapore caned
American teen-ager Michael Fay for vandalism, a day after the sentence
was reduced from six lashes to four in response to an appeal by
President Clinton, who considered the punishment too harsh.
(AP, 5/5/99)
1994 Jun 21, American teenager
Michael Fay was released from a Singapore prison, where he'd been
flogged for vandalism.
(AP, 6/21/04)
1994 Sep 23, John van Damme (59),
Dutch businessman, was hanged in Singapore for drug trafficking.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_in_Singapore)
1995 Feb 27, Barings PLC, a major
British banking firm was forced into bankruptcy after an employee in
Singapore (Nicholas William Leeson) speculated in derivatives that
resulted in losses exceeding $800 million.
(WSJ, 2/27/95, p.A-1)
1995 Mar 17, Flor Contemplacion, a
Filipino maid, was hanged in Singapore for murder, despite
international pleas to spare her.
(AP, 3/17/00)
1995 Dec, In Singapore Nick
Leeson, responsible for the fall of Barings PLC, pleaded guilty to
fraud and was sentenced to 6 ½ years in prison. He was released
in 1999.
(WSJ, 7/2/99, p.A10)
c1995 Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong
called on Singapore to become a "gracious society." This later led to
the founding of the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM).
(WSJ, 11/19/98, p.B1)
1996 Jun 1, The government passed
a Maintenance of Parents Law.
(WSJ, 9/17/96, p.A1)
1996 Sep 23, The government
announced that there will be enough bomb shelters for everyone. All new
dwellings will be required to have bomb shelters with concrete wall and
a steel door.
(SFC, 9/25/96, p.A9)
1996 Dec 24, Singapore PM Goh Chok
Tong said that districts that elect opposition candidates on Jan 2,
would see public-housing improvement funds cut.
(WSJ, 12/24/96, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/31/96, p.1)
1997 Jan 2, The ruling party
captured all but 2 seats in parliamentary elections. More than 85% of
the country’s 3 million live in government-built apartments.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A9)
1997 Jul 1, Chen Jiulin was sent
from China to Singapore to revive the operations of China Aviation Oil,
CAO Singapore. The company soon began to deal in jet fuel.
(WSJ, 12/6/04, p.A1)
1997 In Indonesia fires originally
set by developers to clear forest for palm plantations in Borneo and
Sumatra ran out of control and darkened skies across much of Indonesia,
Malaysia and Singapore. The World Bank estimated that 8% of total
global emission of greenhouse gases for the year were due to the fires.
(Econ, 3/25/06, p.74)
1997 Malaysia banned the export of
sand hurting Singapore’s efforts to secure supplies for its booming
construction industry and sea-fill plans. Indonesia followed suit in
2007 and caused a surge in the price of sand.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.46)
1998 Jan 15, The US and Singapore
announced an agreement for US ships to use a planned $35 million naval
base beginning in 2000.
(SFC, 1/16/98, p.B4)
1998 Sep, Lee Kuan Yew, former
prime minister, authored the 1st volume of his "The Singapore Story."
(SFC, 8/6/01, p.A8)
1998 The film "Twelve Stories" was
written and directed by Eric Khoo. It was about one day in a Singapore
government housing project.
(SFC, 5/20/98, p.E3)
1999 May 29, Prime Minister Goh
Chok Tong visited Northern California and expressed his country's
interest in becoming a knowledge-based regional hub.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.B1)
1999 Aug 18, In Singapore S.R.
Nathan was declared president without elections.
(WSJ, 8/20/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 20, Singapore Airlines
agreed to buy a 49% stake in Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic.
(www.iht.com/articles/1999/12/21/virgin.2.t.php)
1999 The Singapore film "That's
the Way I Like It" starred Anna Belle Francis and Adrian Pang. It was
directed by Glen Goei. It was a comedy spin off on the impact of John
Travolta and "Saturday Night Fever" on young people in Singapore in
1977.
(SFC, 10/19/99, p.B1,4)
1999 Singapore launched Channel
NewsAsia. The state-owned firm was intended to challenge Western
dominance of the air waves.
(Econ, 12/2/06, p.63)
2000 Sep, Lee Kuan Yew, the former
prime minister, authored "From Third World to First." This was volume 2
of his 1998 memoir and covers the development of Singapore from 1965.
(WSJ, 11/2/00, p.A24)(SFC, 8/6/01, p.A8)
2000 Oct 31, A Singapore Airlines
Boeing 747-400 jet crashed on takeoff from Taiwan as Typhoon Xangsane
approached. Flight SQ006 was bound for Los Angeles. The plane
apparently hit construction equipment on a closed runway. The airlines
announced a $400,000 payment to victim’s families after admitting to
pilot error. 83 people were killed when the pilots took off on the
wrong runway. The pilots were not prosecuted.
(WSJ, 11/1/00, p.A1)(SFC, 11/3/00, p.A16)(SFEC,
11/5/00, p.A1)(AP, 6/14/02)
2001 Apr 10, In Singapore doctors
completed a 4-day operation to separate 11-month-old Siamese twins,
Jamuna and Ganga Shrestha of Nepal. The girls had joined heads.
(SFC, 4/11/01, p.C3)
2001 Jun 3, It was reported that
Singapore may consider reviewing the 1992 ban on chewing gum to allow
nicotine gum for smokers.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A16)
2001 Nov 3, In Singapore the
ruling party won a large majority in general elections. The People’s
Action Party of PM Goh Chok Tong got 75% of the vote.
(SSFC, 11/4/01, p.A17)
2001 In Singapore Joshua "J.B."
Jeyaretnam (74), head of the Workers’ Party, was declared bankrupt
following a late payment for a $13,535 monthly installment owed in a
libel suit.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A11)
2001 In Singapore Jack Sim
founded the World Toilet Organization. In 2007 the World Toilet
Association held its inaugural conference in South Korea.
(SFC, 11/23/07, p.A2)
2002 Jan 5, Singapore reported
that authorities had arrested 15 suspected militants between Dec 9-24,
some of whom were al Qaeda trained in Afghanistan. The arrested men
were planning to bomb the US Embassy and US businesses in Singapore.
(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.A8)(SFC, 1/7/02, p.A8)(SFC, 1/8/02,
p.A11)
2002 Jul 2, Malaysia said it had
not reached any new agreements with Singapore on the sale of water to
the island state and other issues after two days of talks.
(Reuters, 7/2/02)
2002 Sep 16, In Singapore
authorities announced the arrests of 21 men they identified as members
of an extremist Islamic organization. The men were initially detained
in August and linked to Riduan Isamuddin, an Indonesian militant.
(SFC, 9/17/02, p.A12)(SFC, 9/20/02, p.A14)
2002 Nov 9, Singapore opposition
leader Chee Soon Juan was released from prison after serving 5 weeks
for trying to hold a May Day rally without a permit at the entrance to
the grounds of the President's official residence.
(Reuters, 11/9/02)
2002 Nov 14, In Singapore the 7th
Asian Congress of Sexology opened.
(Reuters, 11/14/02)
2003 May 5, Hong Kong reported
three more SARS deaths, for a total of 187, and 8 new infections. In
Singapore SARS has killed 26 of the 203 people infected, a fatality
rate of 12.8 percent, more than double the global average.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 31, Singapore was taken
off the list of SARS countries.
(SSFC, 6/1/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 12, A container ship ran
aground off the coast of Singapore and leaked 165 tons of fuel oil into
the sea.
(AP, 6/12/03)
2003 Jun 20, Singapore launched an
automated commuter train system, filling a gap in the city's subway
network.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jul 8, Ladan and Laleh Bijani
(29), Iranian twin sisters, joined at the head, died within 90 minutes
of each other as neurosurgeons in Singapore worked into a 3rd day to
separate them.
(AP, 7/7/03)(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Sep 3, President Bush signed
legislation to begin free trade with Singapore and Chile.
(AP, 9/3/04)
2003 Sep 8, Singapore health
officials confirmed that a local patient tested positive for severe
acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, the 1st new case of the disease in
over 5 months.
(AP, 9/8/03)(WSJ, 9/10/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 26, In Singapore Vignes
Mourthi (23), found guilty of drug trafficking last year after his
arrest in September 2001 for smuggling 27 grams (0.98 ounces) of heroin
and Moorthi Angappan, convicted of helping him, were hanged. Over the
past four years, 88 people have been hanged, mostly for drug offenses.
The government says the death penalty effectively deters drug addiction.
(AP, 9/26/03)
2003 Singapore signed a free trade
agreement with the US. The 1991 ban on chewing gum was lifted soon
after along with the ban on bar-top dancing.
(NW, 8/4/03, p.10)
2004 Jan 15, Amnesty Int'l. said
more than 400 prisoners have been hanged since 1991 in Singapore,
mostly for drug offenses. The London-based rights report on Singapore
was entitled "A Hidden Toll of Executions."
(AP, 1/15/04)(WSJ, 1/16/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 3, Singapore Airlines
began 18½ hour non-stop flights to Los Angeles.
(USAT, 2/5/04, p.1B)
2004 Feb 21, Khoo Teck Puat,
Singapore tycoon, died.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.70)
2004 May 22, The ship car carrier
MV Hyundai, carrying 4,000 cars, sank after colliding with the oil
tanker MT Kaminesan just south of Singapore.
(AP, 5/23/04)
2004 May, Singapore introduced its
first batch of 10-dollar plastic notes. In 2005 two-dollar polymer
notes were scheduled to be issued January 12, 2006.
(AP, 12/22/05)
2004 Jun 4-6, The Shangri-La
Dialogue, a regional security conference, was held in Singapore. It was
organized by the London-based Int’l. Institute for Strategic Studies.
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.37)
2004 Aug 7, Some 6,000 people
turned out for the start of a three-day gay and lesbian festival in
Singapore, where homosexual acts are still illegal. "Nation.04" -- a
festival of international DJs, podium dancers, pumping music and
muscular boys stripping off their tops on packed dance floors -- has
increased in size every year since it was launched four years ago.
(AP, 8/8/04)
2004 Aug 12, Lee Hsien Loong, the
son of Singapore's founding father (Lee Kuan Yew), took over as prime
minister of the city-state. Lee Kuan Yew continued service as cabinet
mentor.
(AP, 7/17/04)(WSJ, 7/19/04, p.A1)(Econ, 7/24/04,
p.39)(Econ, 4/22/06, p.42)
2004 Sep 17, Officials in
Singapore reported that a soil-borne bacterial infection called
melioidosis has killed 24 people there this year, making it more deadly
than SARS or bird flu. The illness, also known as Whitmore's Disease,
is listed by the U.S. government as a potential biological weapon but
Singapore government officials said there was no sign it had been
spread intentionally.
(Reuters, 9/17/04)
2004 Nov 25, In Singapore China
Aviation Oil, CAO Singapore, filed for bankruptcy protection following
an estimated loss of $550 million from a series of bets on oil prices.
(WSJ, 12/6/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 13, It was reported that
the math skills of US students were declining that some educators were
importing texts from Singapore, where students routinely scored high.
(WSJ, 12/13/04, p.A1)
2005 Jan 1, Singapore was forecast
for 4.9% annual GDP growth with a population at 4.3 million and GDP per
head at $25,070.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.91)
2005 Jan 17, Singapore said its
exports expanded by 17 percent to a record high in 2004, reflecting
strong demand from China for oil and commodities and solid sales of
electronics and pharmaceuticals to the United States and European Union.
(AP, 1/17/05)
2005 Feb 21, PM Lee Hsien Loong
said Singapore will lower personal income tax, reduce spending and aim
for a modest surplus in its US$18.13 billion 2005 budget.
(WSJ, 2/22/05, p.A12)
2005 Apr, Singapore PM Lee Hsien
Loong announced his government’s decision to legalize gambling.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.43)
2005 May 31, China said reporter
Ching Cheong of The Straits Times, Singapore's main English-language
newspaper, has admitted to spying for a foreign intelligence agency.
Cheong’s wife said he was arrested April 22 after a source gave him
documents about purged former Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang, who
died this year.
(AP, 5/31/05)(WSJ, 5/31/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 3, The Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) was formed with Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and
Singapore as partners. It aimed to integrate the economies of the
Asia-Pacific region.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Strategic_Economic_Partnership)
2005 Jun 20, India approved a
free-trade agreement with Singapore.
(WSJ, 6/21/05, p.A14)
2005 Aug 15, Singapore hosted
maritime exercises aimed at stopping shipments of weapons of mass
destruction. The drills are part of the U.S.-led Proliferation Security
Initiative (PSI). Other participants in the Deep Saber exercises
included Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy,
Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Russia and the US.
(AP, 8/15/05)
2005 Nov 17-2005 Nov 20, Singapore
hosted the World Cyber Games (WCG). Some 700 participants competed in 8
games with prize money topping $2.5 million.
(Econ, 11/26/05,
p.54)(www.worldcybergames.com/main.asp)
2005 Dec 2, Singapore executed
25-year-old Australian Nguyen Tuong Van for drug trafficking, after he
had a "beautiful last visit" with his family. Australia's leader
protested the sentence, saying it would damage ties.
(AP, 12/02/05)
2005 Dec 6, Devan Nair, former
president of Singapore (1981-1985), died in Canada.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.122)
2005 Dec 8, Police in Singapore
said they have arrested 13 foreigners, including an American, in an
anti-drug operation, less than a week after an Australian was put to
death for a narcotics conviction.
(AP, 12/09/05)
2006 Jan 27, British port operator
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. switched prospective
suitors for the second time after Dubai Ports World raised its offer
for the company to almost $7 billion, trumping an offer from
Singapore's PSA International Ltd.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Feb 3, Mas Selamat Kastari,
Singapore's most-wanted man, believed to have planned bomb and
plane-crash attacks on the island's airport, was deported to Singapore
following his arrest in Indonesia under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
(Reuters, 2/6/06)
2006 Mar 16, Queen Elizabeth II
arrived in the former British colony of Singapore for a two-day state
visit.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 May 6, Singaporeans voted in
legislative elections. The ruling party won a landslide victory in
parliamentary elections. It has won every general election held in the
island nation since it became independent in 1965.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 26, Las Vegas Sands
Corp., owner of The Venetian in Nevada, won a hotly-contested license
to build Singapore's first casino, which could be the world's costliest
casino resort project by the time it opens in 2009.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 Jun 3, Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld, attending a security conference in Singapore,
branded Iran the world's leading terrorist nation yet hoped Tehran
seriously would consider incentives from the West in exchange for
suspending suspect nuclear activities.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2006 Jul 14, Malaysia's government
declassified documents on negotiations with Singapore over an aborted
bridge in a bid to counter criticism from defiant ex-premier Mahathir
Mohamad.
(AFP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 23, The 654-foot
Singapore-flagged Cougar Ace, a cargo ship carrying 4,813 cars from
Japan to Canada, began tilting to its port side late at night hundreds
of miles off Alaska's Aleutian Islands. 23 crew members were rescued
the next day. The ship was owned by Tokyo-based Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and
listed on its side for several weeks before being righted. 4,703 of the
cars were new Mazdas valued at about $100 million. After a year of
planning Mazda scheduled all the cars for complete reduction to scrap
in Portland, Ore.
(AP, 7/25/06)(SFC, 7/25/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.A9)
2006 Sep 15, In Singapore Paul
Wolfowitz, the chief of the World Bank, took a hard line on corruption.
Rodrigo de Rato, his counterpart at the IMF, said policy-makers need to
be ready to adapt to a more difficult economic environment in the
coming year as delegates gathered for the sister institutions' annual
meetings. Wolfowitz said that Singapore had damaged its own reputation
by imposing "authoritarian" restrictions on the entry of activists for
the World Bank/IMF meetings.
(AP, 9/15/06)
2006 Sep 16, In Singapore top
finance chiefs stepped up pressure on China to relax its grip on its
currency, warning that trade imbalances threaten a flourishing global
economy. G7 finance ministers and central bank governors also called
for a resumption of global free trade talks and a revamp of the IMF,
saying China should be given a louder voice but must also fulfill its
broader economic responsibilities.
(AFP, 9/16/06)
2006 Sep 28, Singapore banned the
Far Eastern Economic Review magazine after it failed to comply with
media regulations. The Review, published by Dow Jones & Co Inc., is
being sued by Singapore's PM Lee Hsien Loong and his father,
Singapore's founding PM Lee Kuan Yew, over a July article about
opposition politician Chee Soon Juan.
(AP, 9/28/06)
2006 Oct 11, Indonesia apologized
to Singapore and Malaysia for the choking haze over both countries and
agreed to convene a meeting of regional environment ministers to tackle
the problem. This was the worst smog since 1997 and 1998, when tens of
thousands of people were hospitalized.
(AP, 10/11/06)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.47)
2006 Nov 12, In Singapore student
Ang Chuang Yang (16) broke the Guinness World Record for the shortest
time needed to type a 160-character SMS (short message service) message
after whizzing through the task in less than 42 seconds in a
competition.
(AP, 11/12/06)
2006 Nov 16, Pres. Bush in
Singapore voiced tentative support for a free trade agreement covering
all 21 members of APEC and warned North Korea against trying to sell
nuclear arms.
(SFC, 11/17/06, p.A4)(WSJ, 11/17/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 8, Singapore awarded its
second casino resort contract to Genting International, whose $3.38
billion proposal promises to lure family tourists with a Universal
Studios theme park and a huge outdoor marine park.
(AP, 12/8/06)
2007 Jan 26, Singapore executed
two Africans on drug trafficking charges despite pleas for clemency by
Nigeria's president.
(AP, 1/26/07)
2007 Feb 6, An Indonesian ban on
sand exports went into effect. The ban was directed at Singapore, which
purchased sand to reclaim land from the sea.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.42)
2007 Mar 1, Singapore’s American
Chamber of Commerce said trade between Singapore and the United States
rose 19 percent in 2006 from the year before, the second fastest growth
rate among Washington's major trading partners.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Apr 9, Officials said the
yearly salaries of Singapore's well-paid government ministers are
headed higher, by 60 percent to more than $1.25 million by the end of
2008. Premier Lee Hsein Lloong will now make $2.1 million a year.
(AP, 4/9/07)(WSJ, 4/10/07, p.A1)
2007 May 14, Malaysia’s PM Badawi
hosted Singapore’s Premier Lee Hsein Lloong for a 2-day talk on
economic cooperation.
(WSJ, 5/14/07, p.A8)
2007 Sep 2, Temasek, Singapore’s
state-owned investment company, said it would take a 8.3% stake in
China Eastern Airlines and Singapore Airlines announced a 15.7% stake.
(Econ, 9/29/07,
p.68)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Eastern_Airlines)
2007 Sep 4, 5-nation war games
began in the Bay of Bengal. Indian and US aircraft carriers launched
fighter jets into the air as American submarines cruised below
Japanese, Australian and Singaporean warships.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Oct 15,
Airbus finally delivered its first A380 superjumbo jet. Singapore
Airlines took delivery of the double-decker jet, the world's largest
passenger plane, almost two years late.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 25, An Airbus 380, the
world's largest jetliner, made aviation history, completing its first
commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney with 455 passengers, some of
them ensconced in luxury suites and double beds.
(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Nov 6, Singapore presented
its case regarding sovereignty of three disputed islands in the Pacific
Ocean at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, a claim
disputed by Malaysia.
(AFP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 20, In Singapore
Southeast Asian leaders (ASEAN) adopted a landmark charter but their
vision to create an EU-style bloc faced hurdles because of concerns
over Myanmar, whose military rulers have defied international calls to
restore democracy.
(AP, 11/20/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.43)
2007 Dec 10, Swiss banking giant
UBS AG said it will write off a further $10 billion on losses in the US
subprime lending market and will raise capital by selling substantial
stakes to Singapore and an unnamed investor in the Middle East.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 24, Merrill Lynch agreed
to sell $5 billion of new stock to Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s
sovereign investment company and a smaller stake to a domestic firm.
Merrill said it will write down an additional $8 billion of mortgage
investments in the 4th quarter.
(SFC, 12/25/07, p.E1)
2007 Singapore’s population
numbered about 4.7 million. Growth to 6.5 million was expected in 40-50
years.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.51)
2008 Feb 27, In Singapore Mas
Selamat bin Kastari, an alleged leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant
network, escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre. He was accused
of planning to hijack a plane and crash it into the city's Changi
Airport.
(AFP, 2/28/08)
2008 Apr 9, Singapore's Media
Development Authority, which regulates and censors media and the arts,
said it fined StarHub S$10,000 (3,675 pounds) for airing a commercial
for a song that featured "romanticized scenes" of lesbians kissing and
portrayed the relationship as "acceptable."
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 18,
In Singapore J.B. Jeyaretnam (82), interim secretary general of
the Reform Party, vowed to fight what it called the "enslavement" of
Singapore after nearly half-a-century of rule by the People's Action
Party (PAP).
(AFP, 4/18/08)
2008 May 23, The International
Court of Justice awarded Singapore sovereignty over a disputed island
at the eastern entrance of the Singapore Straits. The ICJ ruled in
favor of Singapore in the 28-year dispute with Malaysia over a tiny but
strategic uninhabited island the size of half a football field. The
court, however, gave Malaysia ownership of a smaller uninhabited
outcropping. Sovereignty over a third disputed cluster of rocks was
left to be determined later between the countries when they sort our
their territorial waters.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 Jul 3, In Indonesia a police
source said that a group of 10 suspected Muslim militants detained in
raids on Sumatra island by Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit was plotting
to attack Western targets. The raids followed the capture of a
suspected militant after a tip-off by authorities in Singapore.
(Reuters, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 18, In Singapore Peter
Lloyd (41), a TV reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
(ABC), was charged with trafficking about one gram of methamphetamine
to a Singaporean for 100 Singapore dollars (73.5 US) at a hotel early
this month.
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 24, In Singapore North
Korea's reclusive communist regime, long seen as a nuclear threat to
the region, signed a nonaggression pact with Southeast Asia, in a
largely symbolic move. The Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) with
the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) came into force
in 1976, requires signatories to renounce the use or threat of force
and calls for the peaceful settlement of conflicts.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Aug 15, In Beijing 2 positive
dope tests by Asian athletes overshadowed Singapore's first medal in 48
years and a podium for Malaysia with a North Korean shooter and a
Vietnamese gymnast exposed as cheats.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Sep 19, Singapore banned all
dairy imports from China and the European Union demanded answers from
Beijing as the baby formula scandal, which left 4 babies dead and over
6 thousand infants ill across China, spread to liquid milk.
(Reuters, 9/19/08)
2008 Oct 10, Singapore’s economy
fell into recession for the first time in 6 years leading the
city-state’s central bank to ease monetary policy and warn of more
struggle to come.
(WSJ, 10/11/08, p.A10)
2008 Oct 13, Singapore's High
Court ruled that an opposition party and two of its leaders must pay
$416,000 in defamation damages to PM Lee Hsien Loong and his father,
former PM Lee Kuan Yew, related to criticism published in 2006 in the
party's newspaper.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 16, Authorities in
Malaysia and Singapore said they will guarantee all foreign currency
and local currency bank deposits.
(WSJ, 10/17/08, p.A5)
2008 Oct 23, China and Singapore
signed a free trade agreement on the eve of a summit of European and
Asian leaders in Beijing. Held every two years, ASEM has no mandate to
issue decisions, but participants hope it will produce some degree of
consensus ahead of a Nov. 15 meeting of the world's top economies in
Washington to discuss the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.
(AP, 10/23/08)(WSJ, 10/24/08, p.A13)
2009 Jan 2, Singapore said its GDP
had contracted at an adjusted annualized pace of 12.5% in the 4th
quarter. Its biggest contraction since it began publishing data in 1976.
(WSJ, 1/3/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 24, In Singapore a couple
treated open air diners to a 15-minute naked parade, triggering both
embarrassment and applause for a scene almost unheard of in the
conservative city-state. The couple, a Caucasian man and an ethnic
Chinese woman in their 20s, were arrested and released on bail.
(Reuters, 1/28/09)
2009 Feb 19, About 12 pirates
armed with guns attacked the tug and barge in the Malacca Strait and
kidnapped two crew members as the vessel was en route to Singapore.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Apr 28, An Indonesian court
sentenced a Singaporean man to 18 years in prison on terrorism charges.
Mohammad Hasan bin Saynudin (36), who claimed to have met Osama bin
Laden on many occasions, was convicted of plotting to kill a teacher
and planning a deadly attack on a bar frequented by Western tourists.
(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 May 16, The gay community in
tightly controlled Singapore held its first-ever rally, taking
advantage of looser laws on public gatherings to call for equality.
(AP, 5/16/09)
2009 May 19, Environmental groups
in Indonesia said Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper, one of
the world's largest paper companies, plans to clear a large swath of
unprotected forest in Indonesia being used as a sanctuary for
critically endangered orangutans.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 Sep 29, Beauty queen Miss
Singapore World gave up her crown after it emerged that she had stolen
credit cards to go on a shopping spree for lingerie. Ris Low had come
under public pressure to be stripped of her 2009 title, after local
media reported she stole seven credit cards last year while working at
a medical clinic, buying goods worth about S$8,000 ($5,662) including
gold anklets and phones.
(Reuters, 9/30/09)
2009 Oct 15, It was reported that
the Taj network, funded by the National Science Foundation, now
connects India, Singapore, Vietnam and Egypt to the larger Global Ring
Network for Advanced Application Development (GLORIAD) global
infrastructure, and "dramatically improves existing US network links
with China and the Nordic region," according to an NSF statement.
(www.livescience.com/technology/091015-global-gloraid-taj-cyber-net.html)
2009 Nov 14, Pres. Obama spoke in
Tokyo and then flew to Singapore for a 21-nation summit of Asia-Pacific
leaders. In his Tokyo speech Pres. Obama declared the United States a
"nation of the Pacific and reached out warmly to China, applauding
Beijing's robust strides as a burgeoning economic giant.
(AP, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 15, In Singapore
President Barack Obama said the United States and Russia would have a
replacement treaty on reducing nuclear arms ready for approval by
year's end, an announcement designed as an upbeat ending to a summit
with Asia-Pacific leaders. Obama also attended a second summit with
leaders of the 10 southeast Asian countries that make up the ASEAN
group. Obama then arrived in Shanghai, launching a three-day visit to
an important global US partner and his first travels ever in China.
(AP, 11/15/09)
2010 Jan 22, Singapore rejected
allegations by a US-based human rights group that it is a "politically
repressive state."
(AFP, 1/22/10)
2010 Feb 1, Thailand and the
United States began their annual Cobra Gold military exercise, now in
its 29th year, with South Korea taking part for the first time.
Singapore, Japan and Indonesia will also participate in the three-week
training exercise, describes as the largest of its type in the world.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 May 16, In Singapore Oliver
Fricker (32), a Swiss citizen, broke into a train depot with an
accomplice and painted graffiti on two subway carriages. On June 25 a
court sentenced Fricker to five months' jail and three strokes of a
cane. On Aug 18 he asked a judge to reduce his five-month jail term for
graffiti, but instead got two months added to his sentence, showing the
lengths the city-state will go to maintain its reputation as a safe and
clean place.
(AP, 8/18/10)
2010 May 25, In the Singapore
Strait emergency teams scrambled to contain thousands of tons of crude
oil that spilled into waters near one of the world's busiest ports
after two ships collided. Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority (MPA)
said in its latest update that 5,000 tons of crude had leaked from the
Malaysian-registered tanker MT Bunga Kelana 3.
(AFP, 5/25/10)
2010 Jun 8, Singapore launched a
global manhunt for Lloyd Dane Alexander, a Briton suspected of
involvement in a train vandalism case that raised doubts about the
security of key installations in the city state. Alexander was accused
of being the accomplice of a Swiss business consultant, Oliver Fricker
(32), who was on bail in Singapore. Both men could face jail, fines and
caning for allegedly breaking into a protected subway depot and
spray-painting elaborate graffiti on a parked train in May. On June 25
a court sentenced Fricker to five months' jail and three strokes of a
cane.
(AFP, 6/8/10)(AFP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jul 18, Singapore arrested
Alan Shadrake (75), a British author, as part of a criminal defamation
investigation related to his book "Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore
Justice in the Dock," on the city-state's death penalty policy. On Nov
3 Shadrake was found guilty of contempt of court. The Attorney-General
argued that Shadrake be jailed for at least 12 weeks.
(AP, 7/19/10)(Econ, 11/6/10,
p.55)(http://tinyurl.com/2gygpa7)
2010 Aug 14, In Singapore the
inaugural Youth Olympic Games officially opened in a spectacular blaze
of color, with Jacques Rogge hailing it as a new chapter in the Olympic
movement. The Games, which feature athletes aged 14 to 18, are a
project Rogge has championed since becoming IOC chief in 2001.
(AFP, 8/14/10)
2010 Oct 22, In Singapore an
American (37), who already may be caned for overstaying his visa, was
charged with fraud for allegedly scamming an Australian man out of
thousands of dollars. Prosecutors alleged that calls made from Kamari
Charlton's mobile phone in March deceived Mirko Prskalo into sending
17,145 Australian dollars ($16,853) in four payments. Prskalo was told
that his nephew and family in Singapore urgently needed the money.
(AP, 10/22/10)
2010 Oct 25, The Singapore and
Australian stock exchanges announced an 8.3 billion dollar merger that
would create one of the world's largest and most diversified financial
trading hubs.
(AFP, 10/25/10)(Econ, 10/30/10, p.78)
2010 Oct 26, An annual report by
Transparency Int’l. marked Somalia as the most corrupt county in the
world, followed by Afghanistan, Myanmar and Iraq. Denmark, New Zealand
and Singapore tied as the world’s least corrupt nations. The US
declined to 22nd from 19th last year.
(SFC, 10/27/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 4, A Qantas A380 with
more than 450 people on board made a dramatic forced landing in
Singapore, trailing smoke from a blackened engine after the Airbus
superjumbo's first mid-air emergency. In response Qantas Airways and
Singapore Airlines suspended flights of the Airbus A380 superjumbos.
(AFP, 11/4/10)(Reuters, 11/4/10)
2010 Singapore’s population
numbered about 4.8 million.
(Econ, 5/22/10, SR p.10)
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Subject = Singapore
End of file.