Monday, October 4, 2010
10 universities to compete in intervarsity debate
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SINGAPORE: Ten universities will battle it out at the 9th International Varsity Debate to be held in Singapore.
The debate is jointly organised by MediaCorp's Channel NewsAsia and China Central Television.
Conducted in Mandarin, the debate includes participants from countries like Australia, England, China and the United States.
The participating teams are separated into two categories, with six teams competing as native Mandarin speakers and four teams, non-native Mandarin speakers.
MediaCorp's executive editor of Chinese news Lim Boon Kheng said: "There are some topics that actually have been debated over and over, and we thought some of the topics still have relevance today, so we (decided to tweak) the topics a bit".
Mr Lim added he looked forward to seeing how non-native Mandarin speakers would bring fresh perspectives to issues debated.
He said non-native speakers had different cultural backgrounds from those of native speakers, and might thus have different views on topics such as the environment and euthanasia.
Topics for native speakers generally require a deeper understanding of Chinese history and culture.
These topics were set by the organising committee, with suggestions from experts such as Chinese academics.
The series will air from November 23 to December 21 on Channel NewsAsia.
-CNA/wk
The debate is jointly organised by MediaCorp's Channel NewsAsia and China Central Television.
Conducted in Mandarin, the debate includes participants from countries like Australia, England, China and the United States.
The participating teams are separated into two categories, with six teams competing as native Mandarin speakers and four teams, non-native Mandarin speakers.
MediaCorp's executive editor of Chinese news Lim Boon Kheng said: "There are some topics that actually have been debated over and over, and we thought some of the topics still have relevance today, so we (decided to tweak) the topics a bit".
Mr Lim added he looked forward to seeing how non-native Mandarin speakers would bring fresh perspectives to issues debated.
He said non-native speakers had different cultural backgrounds from those of native speakers, and might thus have different views on topics such as the environment and euthanasia.
Topics for native speakers generally require a deeper understanding of Chinese history and culture.
These topics were set by the organising committee, with suggestions from experts such as Chinese academics.
The series will air from November 23 to December 21 on Channel NewsAsia.
-CNA/wk
- wong chee tat :)
Resurgence in phone scams
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Man on a handphone |
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SINGAPORE : Police said there has been a resurgence of phone scams involving the kidnap ruse and impersonation of government officials.
They said that there were 34 reported cases in September.
Out of these, there was one successful "kidnap" phone scam case, where the victim was cheated of S$25,000. Police investigations are ongoing in relation to this case.
They are advising the public to be wary when receiving such phone calls.
Police said that in the "kidnap scam", the scammers trick their victims into transferring money into a bank account by claiming that their next-of-kin had been kidnapped and would be harmed if money was not transferred to the caller's bank account.
In the "impersonation scam", the scammers impersonate police officers or staff of the Supreme Court and ask the victims to transfer money into bank accounts to exonerate themselves from criminal cases or court hearings
Police said a new method used by these scammers has seen genuine telephone numbers of a police department or that of the Supreme Court appearing in the caller ID of the victim's phones, although no calls were made from the police or Supreme Court.
Examples of official numbers used by the scammers include 63381034, which is the Supreme Court enquiry hotline; 64350000, which is the CID hotline; and 999, which is the emergency police number.
Police would not reveal how this is done.
They would like to remind the public that while it is normal during the course of police work for investigators to inform members of the public over the phone on court dates and appointments at the police station for police statements, the police would never ask for money to be deposited into a bank account.
- CNA/wk/ms
- wong chee tat :)
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