There’ll be a World War II-themed underground horror experience at Fort Canning from end-September

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This Halloween time, Singapore’s dread enthusiasts will be completely unprepared. A one-of-a-kind experienced dread event taking place at Fort Canning from Sep 25 to Nov 3 will be held in addition to Universal Studios Singapore’s upcoming Halloween Horror Nights 2024.

Titled Basement: The Summoning, the occasion is touted as” Singapore’s largest interactive scary experience” and will completely take place underwater in&nbsp, the ancient Battlebox World War II vault underneath Fort Canning.

The account is set in 1942 and&nbsp, is described as like: &nbsp,” With the oncoming conquest of Japanese forces, the English military officers, in despair, turn to an old book of summoning for help. But, they unleash chaos rather as Bellum, the monster lord of war, and his henchmen overrun the basement”.

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7-Eleven: Japan convenience store giant targeted by rival chain

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Getty Images A 7-Eleven convenience store, operated by Seven &amp, i Holdings, in Kawasaki, Japan.Getty Images

When the owner of 7-Eleven announced this week that it had received a buyout offer from a Canadian rival it triggered shockwaves in Japan.

A foreign company has previously purchased a Chinese business this size.

Generally, companies from Japan were more likely to purchase international organizations.

7-Eleven is the world’s biggest pleasure keep chain, with 85, 000 stores across 20 countries and territories.

And it’s been particularly successful in promoting itself as a fast, affordable, and delicious meals option in places like Japan and Thailand where there is already a lot of that.

” We have more outlets than McDonald’s or Starbucks”, the chief executive of Seven &amp, i Holdings, Ryuichi Isaka, told BBC News before the company received the merger present.

Around a third of those 85, 000 retailers are in Japan, while there are almost 10, 000 in the US.

A major player

In contrast, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard, which operates the Circle K ring, has nearly 17, 000 shops in 31 countries and territories. More than half of its stores are located in North America.

The approach valued Seven &amp, i at more than$ 30bn ( £23bn ) before news of the preliminary offer emerged.

7-Eleven’s stock jumped by over 20 % on Monday, before giving up some of those increases the following morning.

Analysts credit the Chinese currency’s relative weakness in relation to the US dollar and other main currencies for making Seven &amp, i more affordable.

According to Manoj Jain from Hong Kong-based wall account Maso Capital, efforts by the Chinese government to promote mergers and acquisitions appear to be working in addition to the yen’s failure.

Getty Images A Circle K convenience store in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Getty Images

7-Eleven has been willing to capitalise on the reputation of the meal it sells- a wide range, including wheat balls, hamburgers, cooked pasta, cooked chicken and dumplings.

In Japan, stores like 7-Eleven are well-known with tourists looking for cooking comforts, while comfort businesses are where people go to get a bar of chocolate or a bag of biscuits in an emergency in much of the world.

The ring has become a social media hit in Asia thanks to these 7-Eleven food.

One of the best things to do in Thailand is to visit a 7-Eleven, where the ham and cheese toastie has become a TikTok reach has even been promoted.

American singer Ed Sheeran is one of the stars who has helped raise the profile of 7-Eleven. A picture of him attempting snacks from a Thai shop went viral.

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As the business was pressured to buy some of its assets and concentrate on the 7-Eleven product, Mr. Isaka has been aiming to replicate that success in the US and European areas.

The company has been updating its method to allow for more locations to follow the Japanese retailers ‘ practices.

According to Mr. Isaka,” we discovered that stores that sell new food are attracting numerous more shoppers.”

” We want to grow with great value, not only increase the quantity. We want to ensure that customers are satisfied, boost the profits of each shop, and expand the number of locations, he continued.

National stems

Seven &amp, i has also been on a shopping spree. In January, it bought more than 200 stores in the US from petrol station chain Sunoco for around$ 1bn ( £770m ).

In April, it bought again more than 750 businesses from a operator in Australia.

For most of its nearly century-long past 7-Eleven was an American company.

It launched in 1927 with the sale of ice blocks to keep refrigerators nice before stocking essentials like eggs, milk, and bread.

At the time, the shops were empty between 07: 00 and 23: 00- hence the name.

Seven &amp, i Holdings 7-Eleven's first store in Texas in the United States.Seven &amp, i Holdings

As the company expanded, 7-Eleven started offering companies outside the United States.

In 1974, Asian financial firm Ito-Yokado struck a deal to start the country’s earliest 7-Eleven. In 1991, it bought a 70 % stake in the chain’s US parent company.

The founder of Ito-Yokado, Masatoshi Ito, who died in 2023 at the age of 98, is often credited with transforming 7-Eleven into a global empire.

Ito-Yokado was renamed Seven &amp, i Holdings in 2005 with the “i” in its name being a nod to Ito-Yokado and Mr Ito, who was by then the company’s honorary chairman.

Now, as the the company decides whether it will remain under Japanese ownership or return to its North National stems, experts are wondering whether more of Japan’s big firms could become takeover targets.

According to Mr. Jain, there is now a “greater determination of Asian boards and management teams to accept international approaches and be sympathetic to international approaches.”

More foreign investors may now be urged to follow their interests in Chinese businesses, he continued.

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Everest’s Sherpas fear their homeland is at risk of washing away

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Laxman Adhikari Aerial view of a flood-affected village in a Himalayan valleyLaxman Adhikari

Sitting at an altitude of around 3, 800m ( 12, 467ft ) is Thame, a small Sherpa village in Nepal’s Everest region.

It is home to some record-holding Sherpa climbers, including Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the first man to climb Mount Everest along with adventurer Edmund Hillary.

However, after a glacial lakes burst its banks on August 16, the town was engulfed by snowy flood waters, displacing around 60 people and destroying more than a few residences and hotels, as well as a university and medical facility.

Around 300 of the village’s residents are now asking themselves whether it is also safe to live there any more as a result of the event.

” We are also shocked,” the statement says.

No injuries or fatalities were reported, but Sherpa residents said they were fortunate that the flood occurred during the daytime, when everyone was alive and the alerts arrived immediately.

” If this had happened at night time, between 200 to 300 people would have lost their lives”, Ang Tshering Sherpa, past president of Nepal Mountaineering Association said.

” We are still in shock, and we are still crying when we (villagers ) talk to each other”, said Yangji Doma Sherpa, a native of Thame who was born in the village.

The bigger issue is whether this area is currently safe to live in. People do n’t feel safe because this flood has shown that we are currently in an even more dangerous situation.

Another rural residents have experienced similar hardship.

” Some components of our town were wiped away by the storm, but we managed to run up the hill,” said Pasang Sherpa at Tok Tok town, which is a walk downhill from Thame in about two days.

” Brochures and debris were swept down by the then watery and bubbly river, turning it into a dark brown.”

I am also shaken because the look and the tone were thus spooky. I’ve found refuge in a local village, and I’m considering whether or not I should always go back to Tok Tok.

Locals claim that a large portion of the risk may be reduced if proper monitoring were in place for glacial lake located inland of human settlements.

While a dozen rivers have drawn the attention of experts and authorities, they added, the rest are basically ignored.

Nevertheless, disaster planning is non-existent in many townships.

A few settlements downstream of the Imja glacial lakes have been taught how to operate in the event of a flood, according to Ms. Doma Sherpa.

” But there has been no instruction in our community anymore”.

Four incidents occurred in the Dudhkosi valley valley near Everest out of the more than a dozen glacial lake outbursts that have been documented in Nepal over the past 50 years.

One incident occurred upstream of Thame in 1985, when a big avalanche slammed into the Dig Tsho glacier river and created a storm that topped the bridge. A hydroelectricity plant downstream was destroyed by the flood, which also caused more than$ 3 million in damage.

Khumbu Pashanlhamu Rural Municipality People walk down a dirt road amid rubble and destroyed buildings beside a partially collapsed hillsideKhumbu Pashanlhamu Rural Municipality

Little lakes, great dangers

Not a problem that only affects Thame, the lack of checking is not one-sided by it.

In the Himalayas, there are hundreds of ice and glacial lakes, but only a small percentage of those in the Mountain region are monitored and equipped with premature flood warning systems.

Global warming is also accelerating glacier dissolving, which could cause lake to overflow.

A study conducted by the University of Leeds in 2021 found that over the past few decades Himalayan ice have lost snow ten times more quickly than the regular price since their development, which dates back 400 to 700 years.

According to a study that was published in the Nature book in 2022, South Col Glacier on Mount Everest may have lost half of its size since the 1990s as a result of heat.

Imja Lake, which is located below Mount Everest, was drained in 2016 after authorities discovered it was in risk of overflowing and flooding nearby communities, trekking trails, and roads.

However, according to experts, several new rivers have formed in recent years, while others have expanded and joined forces to be larger people.

The destabilization of the native scenery, which is caused by fast-retreating ice, adds to the risk by creating more floods and avalanches that you put into the lakes and cause them to burst, further aggravating the situation.

Officials claim to have monitored around 20 glacial rivers in the Nepali Himalayas and have listed them as dangerous, but the two that burst on August 16 were none mentioned in that list nor closely monitored by authorities.

The damage is so great, according to Mr. Tshering Sherpa,” but they were the smallest people, and no one cared about them.”

” Think what might occur if the great ones suddenly burst out. In the Mountain area, there are many of them.

A helicopter inspection by Nepal’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority ( NDRRMA ) revealed there were a total of five small glacial lakes close to the source of the flooding. One of them had half burst, another had burst fully.

Which means that the three different lakes at the same place was burst out at the same time, according to Ms. Doma Sherpa.

” Now that people know that, they do n’t feel safe anymore. We are mainly concerned about older people because of their accessibility issues.

Khumbu Pashanlhamu Rural Municipality An aerial view of a village in the Khumbu Valley where the hillside has been shorn away.Khumbu Pashanlhamu Rural Municipality

Cut off from the outside world, exactly?

Visitors claim that some damages caused by floods are then irreparable, and the effects of global warming on Himalayan glaciers and lakes have only grown worse since then.

The Thame River’s course changed as a result of Friday’s storm, which changed while it used to pass through the Khumbu valley’s left bank. It now flows right through the town, claiming nearly half of the land.

” Much of the remaining property today is full of dust and rock”, Ms Doma Sherpa said.

” This is not the same as rebuilding the homes that the earthquake destroyed.” What can you create on when you have no property left?

The only electricity station in the area that provides energy to the area has also been damaged by the storm.

After the catastrophe, which caused the place to stop working, mud and debris accumulated in the reservoir.

” As a result, energy source has been cut off, and because of that telecom techniques were also not functioning”, Mingma Sherpa, head of a junior team at Namche, a big tourist spot near Thame, said.

Since the crisis struck, the region has been completely disconnected from the outside world. This is quite frightening”.

” This catastrophe has shown how uncomfortable and vulnerable we are,” said one of the people who had been worried about slow commencement effects of climate change, such as dwindling water resources.

State leaders are aware of the concerns of the area.

The power is then assembling a team of experts to” studie the risks posed by the three remaining lakes downstream of Thame town and determine whether the upstream settlement places are safe to live in or not,” according to Anil Pokhrel, mind of NDRRMA.

” We are even working on disaster risk reduction in the region”, she added.

Members of native Sherpa areas, but, say they’ve seen more talk and less motion over the years when it comes to dealing with challenges from glacial lakes outbursts.

” We hear all great ideas, especially during meetings, and soon the ideas are forgotten”, Ms Doma Sherpa said.

” But we ca n’t forget what this flood has done,” he says, adding that there are lakes nearby that can cause disasters for us at any time.

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‘A fresh start’: Singapore Sports School’s Kallang move will boost larger ecosystem, say current and ex-students

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While he was a student at the Sports School, original world champion Loh Kean Yew may also travel to and from Kallang and Woodlands.

” I needed to think:’ May I be staying at Woodlands, or if I be staying at Kallang? “,” Loh, who was pursuing a certification that Republic Polytechnic and SSP simultaneously offered, recalled Loh.

In order to save money, he finally occupied a place with his brother in the Geylang region and cycled to teaching.

Liew, the sprinter, said:”( The ride ) takes away a lot of time for athletes to recover and sleep and even do work. “

A more visible location will protect time- and even mean that more students may choose to never board at the school, she added, nothing that it can be” very limiting” spending almost all of one’s time in the same environment.

” You do n’t get as much time with family members; companions from inside,” she explained. I believe I would have been a little happier student-athlete if I had the opportunity to attend Sports School and return home. “

The open-water sprinter added that the school’s location in Kallang could draw in more kids and, possibly, expand the possibilities for partnerships with other educational institutions.

The centralization of the various sports ‘ training facilities at Kallang, according to Mr. Hairul Sahril, whose daughter will join SSP in the following year, will also result in fewer student-athletes having to travel to the individual program record.

AN EXTRA PUSH

The SSP’s transfer to Kallang will likewise give student-athletes the opportunity to learn from Team Singapore players who are also training nearby.

The athlete’s degree will likely increase the more they gather in one place, according to former federal soldier and two-time earth champion Darren Choy.

Amita Berthier, a two-time Gymnast, predicted a perfect environment for SSP kids.

When you are surrounded by people who share your goals or had achieved excellent outcomes. You soon look up to them,” said the fighter.

” That’s just the nature of sports in general. You try to find inspiration. And I believe this will undoubtedly give the kids more encouragement because it can be a little tiresome when you’re in Woodlands in the middle of nothing.

” ( With the move ), it’s like, refreshing… a new start. “

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Pakistan parliament seeks pest control for rat infestation

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Pakistan’s congress has a trouble- and it is nothing to do with the lawmakers.

No, the issue besieging the tower, which turns its practices into over “marathon” tracks and terrifying fresh starters, is rats. Great ones.

After an established commission requested to see the records of meetings from 2008, the extent of the issue became clear. Most of the documents were discovered to have been severely gnawed by animals when they were collected.

National Assembly official Zafar Sultan admitted to the BBC that” the animals on this floors are so large that even animals may be afraid of them.”

The infestation is now so widespread that an annual budget of 1.2m rupees ($ 4, 300, £3, 300 ) has been dedicated to making Pakistan’s halls of power rat-free.

The second floor, which allegedly houses the business of the senate opposition leader, is where the majority of the animals appear to be located, and it appears to be where most of the rats are located.

It is also, probably critically, the place of a food house.

However, the rabbits typically stay out of sight until after work.

” When there are often no people here in the evening, the rabbits run around in there like it’s a marathon”, a National Assembly established said.

The employees there are now familiar with this, but they become frightened if one comes here for the first time.

In order to locate a pest control company that can assist authorities with dealing with the rats, advertisements have now been published in various Pakistani newspapers.

So far, only two have shown any interest.

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StarHub broadband service disrupted in many areas across Singapore

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SINGAPORE: StarHub customers in numerous areas of Singapore reported issues with their broadband service on Tuesday night ( Aug 20 ). Some people complained about slow internet connection, while others claimed they had no access to any kind of services. &nbsp,

As of 9 p.m., more than 7, 000 reports were made to the Downdetector failure monitoring system. &nbsp,

StarHub stated in a Facebook article at around 8 p.m. that it was conscious that some consumers may be experiencing “disruptions” to their broadband service.

” Our team is working to resolve the problem immediately. We apologize for the inconvenience and may keep you informed as soon as possible.

By around 8.50pm, Star Hub’s Facebook post had garnered more than 600 comments.

Problems were reported by Twitter users in areas like as&nbsp, Pasir Ris, Woodlands, Bukit Batok, Jurong, Hougang, East Coast, Boon Keng, Dover, Tampines, Choa Chu Kang, Kovan, Bukit Merah, River Valley, Toa Payoh, Yio Chu Kang, Simei, Telok Blangah, Commonwealth and Boon Lay.

CNA has contacted StarHub for more information.

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Badlapur: Protests in over alleged sexual abuse of school girls

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In a train depot in the eastern state of Maharashtra, thousands of demonstrators have gathered to voice their opposition to the alleged sexual abuse of two children.

The girls reportedly experienced abuse last week when they used the restroom at their hospital in Badlapur, Thane district.

The parents of the children have alleged there was a pause in action despite the fact that authorities have made an arrest for a man school personnel.

As unhappy protesters obstructing the lines at the Badlapur Railway Station on Tuesday and chanting righteousness for the kids, the trains were suspended.

According to local reports, some demonstrators allegedly pelted rocks at the officers as well.

Videos shared on social media showed enormous masses squabbling against one another on a railroad software.

Eknath Shinde, the state’s chief minister, announced the establishment of a special investigation team ( SIT ) to investigate the situation and that legal action would be taken against the school.

” We are in the process of fast-tracking this circumstance, and no-one will been spared if found guilty”, he said.

The management of the school has also been subject to scrutiny after the children’s families allege that there are a number of health issues, including the lack of working CCTV cameras on campus.

Priyank Kanungo, chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, called the school’s attitude towards the case “insensitive” and alleged that it had tried to “suppress the case”.

” The concerned police station did not register an FIR]First Information Report or an initial complaint ] in due time”, he added.

The officers and the school’s control has never responded to these claims.

But the university has suspended its director, a school teacher and a female individual over the affair, according to the Times of India paper.

The protest is taking place in the aftermath of an outpouring of anger across India over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in the eastern state of West Bengal.

The 31-year-old person’s body was found earlier this month in the lecture room of a state-run clinics in Kolkata where she worked.

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Parents welcome increased parental leave, with some considering having more children

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These changes, which are part of the president’s endeavors to provide stronger parenting support for families, will bring the total paid left to 30 weeks or about 7.5 months, away from the latest 20 weeks. &nbsp,

According to Ms. Toh, “paying for care left is too little, especially when you have two or three children,” adding that she returned to work after three weeks of maternity leave so she could keep the extra four days in event her child fell ill and needed to take a vacation. &nbsp,

” With this extra ten days of shared keep, it’s definitely enough for us to take care of our children,” says the six-day childcare keep is really not enough.

Ms. Elizabeth Teh, who has a one-year-old child and is hoping for more, also praised the increased filial left as it would give her and her husband more time to look after their kids in the future. &nbsp,

” Any additional time that you can get with your kid, during those early times, is definitely a game change because the first few times, especially when the child is born, is challenging work”, said the 30-year-old.

” A lot of time and effort are put into raising the child, but having this extra time to spend with them and to be together as a home system is very precious,” she continued.

Due to the increased filial leave, Mr. Eric Wu, who wed in March of this year, claimed that he and his family are now more likely to have children. &nbsp,

” There are still things to consider like the cost of living, hospital costs as well as the change in lifestyle, but the increased left is promising because it means that there’s more time to take care of your children”, said the 34-year-old. &nbsp,

” The elevated left allows me to share the burden with my wife, and privately, I think having a role in my child’s early growth is very important,” he said. &nbsp,

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