Madonna - Hey You (Live Earth Concert)

World's tallest ferris wheel

Construction has started on the world's tallest ferris wheel in Singapore - the Singapore Flyer. With a height of 169m/554ft it will be 34m/111ft taller than the BA London Eye. The completion date is set for 2008.

http://www.singaporeflyer.com.sg/

From the homepage:

What is the Singapore Flyer
The Singapore Flyer is a world-class visitor attraction, fusing together a massive engineering structure to an iconic sculpted building. Its centrepiece is the giant observation wheel from which visitors can experience some of the best views in the entire region.

Diameter of the wheel
150 meters

Height
169 meters (the height of a 42-storey building)

Duration of ride
37 minutes. The ride will be operational 16 hours a day.

Capsules
Comprises 28 fully air-conditioned and UV protected capsules that can comfortably carry 32 people each (max 36).

View from the top
Singapore's city; from Changi Airport to the island of Sentosa, and beyond into parts of Malaysia and Indonesia

Location
Marina Bay, the prime waterfront Central Business District location. The Flyer is within a short walking distance to over 2,500 four and five star hotel rooms, the Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre and the Esplanade, Singapore's new performing arts centre.

Land Area
33,700 square meters

Transport/ Accessibility
• MRT (Circle Line)
• Parking for 40 tour buses and 300 motor vehicles
• A jetty, acting as the hub for the Marina Bay and Singapore River tourist cruises

Special features of the Singapore Flyer
• The Giant Observation Wheel is one of the world's largest man-made moving land objects
• Waterfront retail, entertainment, and merchandise centre
• Central atrium with a recreated Asian rain forest
• Broad, landscaped, open-air dining promenade running along 210m of uninterrupted sea frontage
• An open-air Greek Theatre concert bowl, for live entertainment performances

Easy Access for elderly and people with disabilities
A patented combination of travelators and synchronized double door entry/ exit system which enables access from both sides. Passengers will experience an easy "step on" access, making it convenient for elderly and people with disabilities.

Revolutionary Wheel Rim
The slim one dimensional wheel rim represents an engineering design breakthrough from the conventional deep truss Ferris Wheel configuration.

Precision Wind Engineering
An extensive study of the dynamics under wind ensures that passengers will be able to enjoy Singapore's spectacular skyline without experiencing lateral movement or vibration. The emphasis is on comfort and safety.

Singapore Grand Prix releases estimated ticket prices for F1

SINGAPORE: Its official, Formula One is coming to Singapore in October 2008! According to the media, it will be held at night. The very first night race in the world.

Formula One fans will be able to get their hands on tickets to Singapore's first-ever Formula One Grand Prix by the end of the year.

Corporate ticket sales will begin on 28 November, while public ticket sales will start in mid-December.

Singapore Grand Prix, the organiser of the race, said ticket prices would be kept affordable to ensure that many people would be able to enjoy it.

Responding to Channel NewsAsia, Singapore GP, which controls 100 percent of the hospitality rights, said the cheapest ticket is likely to be around S$50 for the trial races.

During the actual race day, tickets will cost around S$100.

And for the exclusive paddock area, tickets will cost a whopping S$6,000 to S$7,000 each.

Singapore GP said it is fine-tuning the details, adding that mid-range packages would be made available.

These packages could include exclusive use of sky lounges for companies.

There could even be an outdoor party, similar to a mini Zouk-Out, within the circuit park.

Some 80,000 to 90,000 people are expected to get a taste of the F1 action in Singapore.


- CNA

2 hip-hop stars arrested in New York after concert

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Hip hop artists Lil Wayne and Ja Rule were arrested Sunday evening after a concert in Manhattan on charges of criminal possession of weapons, each in separate incidents, a New York Police Department spokesman told CNN.

Ja Rule was pulled over for speeding and officers reportedly arrested him after finding a gun in the car.

Police say officers pulled over a speeding car around 10:37 p.m. on the Upper West Side carrying Ja Rule and two others.

They also recovered a .40-caliber pistol from the vehicle.

About an hour later Lil Wayne was arrested after officers caught him and another man smoking marijuana on the street.

They found a .40-caliber pistol in his possession.

Lil Wayne's real name is Dwayne Carter and Ja Rule's is Jeff Atkins. Both are best-selling rap artists.


-CNN

Football: Beckham gives America glimpse of The Glamorous Game

LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles, where Magic Johnson brought "Showtime" to the Lakers and Jack Nicholson defined courtside cool, has a new game in town thanks to David Beckham.

The former England captain may have been limited by a nagging ankle injury in his 12-minute debut for Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy, but his appeal to fans both A-list and blue-collar appears to be boundless.

Even those who have made a career of naysaying when it comes to football, such as the Los Angeles Times' Bill Plaschke, couldn't resist.

"I was the guy who was bored by Beckham, remember? What's really crazy is, I'm not bored anymore," Plaschke enthused in Sunday's paper. "Turns out, even on a bum ankle, David Beckham is a blast."

The Galaxy's 27,000-seat Home Depot Center stadium was bursting at the seams on Saturday with a crowd that included long-time Galaxy season ticket holders, football first-timers and a welter of celebrities who were given the red-carpet treatment en route to their secluded luxury suites.

The stands were awash in Beckham's No. 23 Galaxy jersey - of which 200,000 had been sold just a week after it was introduced.

"We have never come across anything like it," said Chris McGuire, sports marketing manager for adidas soccer. "At this time the LA Galaxy David Beckham jersey is the number one-selling shirt in the world."

It's a good omen for the difficult task Beckham has taken on: to make football, the oft-forgotten step-child of US sport, a player.

"I think we've already been successful, because we've raised the awareness of MLS," Beckham told an ESPN interviewer, before he'd even kicked a ball in earnest. "I think we've achieved on that side already."

Certainly Beckham and his pop-star wife Victoria have gotten the attention of their celebrity chums.

Actresses Katie Holmes and Eva Longoria attended Saturday's match, albeit without their famous husbands Tom Cruise and Tony Parker.

ESPN deployed a "red carpet" reporter to document the stars' reactions to the match, which was preceded on the sports cable network by an hour-long special: "David Beckham: New Beginnings."

Sunday saw another injection of glitz as the Beckhams were feted at an invitation-only party at the Museum of Contemporary Art's Geffen Contemporary gallery, a bash co-hosted by Cruise and fellow actor Will Smith.

Cruise flew in for the party from Germany, where he is shooting his latest film.

But while Beckham basks in the Hollywood spotlight, he has been careful to give America's long-standing and long-suffering football fans what they want, too, vowing that he wants nothing more than to blend in with his new team-mates and help them pull themselves up from the depths of the MLS table.

With appealing modesty, Beckham said the crowd reaction to his every move on Saturday "made me feel embarrassed at times."

And he made it clear he didn't expect to be treated with kid gloves on the pitch, shrugging off a stoppage time challenge by Chelsea substitute Steve Sidwell that had the Home Depot Centre crowd - and no doubt Galaxy general manager Alexi Lalas - gasping.
"I saw him coming and I jumped just in time, so my foot wasn't actually planted when he hit me," Beckham said.

"I got up and you expect that in games. He's a competitive player, it's going to be his first start of the season, he's a good player, he's done well in the Premiership so far and now he's playing for a club like Chelsea so he's going to want to smash some people along the way, even if it's in a friendly,” said Lalas.

"That's part and parcel of being a footballer."

Team-mate Quavas Kirk was impressed.

"I actually thought he wasn't going to go into the guy, but he just gritted his teeth and went straight into him," Kirk said. "I like that. Even with the injury, he came and went out and played hard."

With Beckham still playing for Real Madrid through June in their successful bid to win the title, the Galaxy have struggled. But with his arrival on the cards, MLS back-loaded the team's schedule so that they have six games in hand on their rivals, and time to make up ground.

Beckham said the side's performance against Chelsea was an encouraging start.

"It was a good performance, because when you play against a team the quality of Chelsea where every player is comfortable on the ball, every player wants the ball and is capable of doing something in the game," Beckham said. "We kept them to 1-0 and we had chances as well."

The challenge for Beckham's team-mates will be to rise to his level on the pitch, while ignoring the circus that surrounds him off it.

Kirk was looking forward to it.

"It was believable," he said of the atmosphere on Saturday. "I loved it. I had never experienced anything like this before - ever."

- CNA

Prime office rents up 23% in Q2: report

SINGAPORE: Office space in the Central Business District has become even tighter, and dearer, according to a latest report by property consultant Cushman and Wakefield.

Average rentals for offices in the prime areas are now at an average of S$11.50 per square foot, with buildings around Raffles Place most expensive to rent, priced as high as S$12.60 per square foot.

The report shows that rental rates in prime areas have surpassed the 1996 peaks by as much as 35 per cent, with the 99 per cent occupancy and 23 per cent quarterly jump in rents unprecedented.

It says the increase is fuelled by a combination of tight supply and fast-expanding businesses, particularly among financial institutions.

Says Donald Han, Managing Director, Cushman & Wakefield, "Almost every tenant is looking at expansion, and a lot of them are looking into expanding twice, or sometimes even three times more than what they are presently having, in terms of square footage. So it's unprecedented."

This means more companies are now looking outside the prime districts to locate some of their operations.

Last month, HSBC and DBS each leased over 100,000 square feet of space in the Comtech building, off Alexandra Road, for their non-core services such as call centres.

"A lot of tenants are now looking at potential ways to reduce total occupancy costs by moving some of their back-end operations into decentralised areas, into business parks.

"If you're looking into the business parks rentals, it's only hovering at about S$3 per square foot. That is manageable. To pay S$15-S$20 per square foot is quite a high price for any big multinational corporation," says Han.

The spike in rentals has raised concerns that Singapore is becoming less cost-competitive.

To ease the supply crunch, the government has announced some measures.

It has put up for tender a short-term, or transitional, site for offices above Newton MRT station, which it says will take less than a year to develop.

"If it's successful, and I'm confident it will be, there will be more such sites that will come onto the market over the next 24 months. That helps because the supply crunch basically needs to be addressed from now till 2010, as the government sales of sites made known in the second half of this year will only come on-stream from 2010 onwards," says Han.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) says it will also release more detailed rental and vacancy data on offices from Friday, to provide a clearer perspective of the market.

- CNA

Bank It Like Beckham: the business of sport

It is, in fact, a second coming. The English superstar already has a soccer academy in Los Angeles, a son called Brooklyn (we couldn't possibly presume to hazard a guess why) and a $22 million mansion in Beverly Hills close to his friends Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.

But on Friday July 13--don't the folk who arrange these sorts of thing know how superstitious soccer players are?--Beckham was rolled out as the latest member of the Los Angeles Galaxy. He is joining the Major League Soccer team--owned by sports and entertainment group AEG--on a five-year, playing and promotions contract that will earn him up to $250 million.

His first appearance with the Galaxy on the pitch--injured ankle permitting--was on Saturday, July 21, in an exhibition game against Roman Abramovich's English team of multimillionaires known as Chelsea. His first league game is scheduled to be August 5th at Toronto FC.

For all the glitz, glamour and hype surrounding Beckham and his even more famous (if the market research is accurate) wife Victoria Adams, aka Posh Spice, the Galaxy are getting a model pro, not a prima donna past his prime.

Beckham is known within the game for working hard in training and in matches and for being both a good team man and a leader.

At the Galaxy, he won't be surrounded by superstars at every turn as he was at his two previous clubs, Manchester United and Real Madrid; it will be more like playing for England (well, perhaps not, except in the sense that he will be carrying a lot of unreasonable expeditions.) But Beckham is used to being the center of attention on and off the pitch.

He lacks the natural articulateness that is such a PR asset in Tinseltown and that the marketers so cherish in professional sports players who are their pitchmen. But Beckham has worked hard at that, too, in recent years; he is a more polished article than he once was.

He has also looked after his body well, moving from the punishing, hectic pace of the English Premiership to the physically less-demanding Spanish league four years ago.

The even gentler pace of the MLS will help his now 32-year-old legs extend their career over the length of a five-year contract.

He won titles aplenty at Manchester United and one at Real Madrid, and the Galaxy will be looking for him and his famous ball-bending right foot to lead them to a trophy cabinet full of silverware in those five years.

Beckham's other challenge is a commercial one.

He ranks as the second-highest-earning soccer player behind Barcelona's Ronaldinho on our most recent list of Most Valuable Soccer Teams.

However, our ranking is based on the past year' earnings, and so it doesn't include the Galaxy contract, under which Beckham will get a cut of the revenue that the team makes from increased sales of shirts and season tickets, as well as of marketing contracts. That should restore him to No 1.

Beckham is also No. 15 on our most recent list of Powerful Celebrities. That will help him with the little matter of boosting soccer in the U.S. so the MLS can launch an assault on the country's entrenched professional team-sports leagues.

Expectations couldn't be higher.

Trophies, money and fame aside, to truly succeed, Beckham needs to go further: He needs to show marketers that like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan, he can transcend his sport.

- CNA

Singapore among region's heaviest Web users

SINGAPORE - A study of Internet behaviour in the Asia-Pacific region revealed that Singaporeans spent more time and viewed more pages than the regional average.

Netizens from the Republic, on average, visited the Internet 15.5 days a month and spent 25.7 hours viewing 2,406 pages, compared to the regional figures of 13.8 days, 20.2 hours and 2,171 pages.

The World Metrix study in May done by comScore, an online research firm, compared Internet usage across 10 economies, with Internet penetration rates ranging from 3 to 65 per cent.

The greatest rate of online activity came from South Korea, with 65 per cent of its population going online. It was followed by Australia and New Zealand.

Singapore’s online penetration rate was 58 per cent.

While China had the largest online population, or 91.5 million people, this only made up 9 per cent of the country’s population — giving it a low Internet penetration rate. Along with Japan and South Korea, the three countries accounted for 60 per cent of the region’s Internet population.

The Asia-Pacific makes up a third of the world’s online population, said comScore.

Yahoo’s websites were the most popular in the region, with Microsoft and Google trailing close behind.

- CNA