en-us Copyright 2005 Straits Times Interactive. 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT 60 http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/others/rss/sti_rss_logo.gif 120 31 The first day of Chinese New Year fell on Feb 15, 1942, but no one in Singapore was celebrating.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT History lessons came alive yesterday as more than 300 students were given a glimpse of what their forefathers went through during the fall of Singapore.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT Mention Feb 15, 1942, and some young Singaporeans do not associate it with the day that Singapore fell to Japanese troops during World War II.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT When an 18-year-old George Prior came home from work one morning and found his house bombed into a pile of rubble, he was so incensed he decided to take up arms himself. The Japanese had just launched their first air raid on Singapore on Dec 8, 1941. The small Tanjong Pagar house where Mr Prior, now 88, lived - owned by his aunt and uncle - was a casualty of the raid. The older couple had already been evacuated to India, along with Mr Prior's parents and four younger siblings. His father is Eurasian and his mother, Indian.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT The Temasek Trail, launched yesterday, is the first of a series of walks to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle for Singapore. Temasek, which means 'sea town', was the name Singapore had been known by since the 5th century. The trail traces Singapore's story from its 14th-century beginnings to modern times

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT At the age of six, Madam Zaleha Sumun witnessed her birth parents being dragged out of their house to be killed by Japanese soldiers.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT When Singapore fell to the Japanese on Feb 15, 1942, many Indian households here put up pictures of Mahatma Gandhi on their doorstep. Mr Bala A. Chandran's family was one of them.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT Writer Mohsin Hamid has felt the windows of his house shake from the rattle of exploding bombs in Lahore, Pakistan.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT Influential Malay folk band Kembara, fronted by producer, songwriter and singer M. Nasir, will get back together after 25 years for a concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall on April 22. Tickets from $40 will go on sale at Sistic from Saturday.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT New York - The Grammy Awards' warm embrace of Chris Brown has drawn the ire of viewers.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT Los Angeles - Uggie, the adorable four-legged star of The Artist, was among six pooches which won at the first Golden Collar Awards.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT New York - Kate Upton was revealed on Monday as the new cover girl for the 2012 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT The story: Baroness Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep), suffering from memory loss, recalls her rise to power, from her modest beginnings as a grocer's daughter to the leader of the Conservative party to Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT There are stories testifying to the intensity Nicolas Cage brings to his work as an actor. He wore a voodoo mask, for example, while shooting his latest movie, Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance, even though his face would be hidden by a computer rendering of the famous burning skull from the comic books.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT A short film about a German couple adopting an Indian orphan from Kolkata won the top prize of US$20,000 (S$25,200) at the Next Reel Film International Festival held earlier this month.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT The story: Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, a general manager who is trying to put together a winning baseball team with a far smaller budget compared to illustrious teams such as the New York Yankees. He is helped by Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a Yale economics graduate with radical ideas about how to assess a player's value.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT The story: Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close) is a hard-working but reclusive waiter in a hotel in 19th-century Dublin. She has been passing off as a man for decades because opportunities for women in her class are limited by society and religion. She counts her pennies in order to open a small tobacco shop. A house painter, Hubert Page (Janet McTeer), appears at the hotel. Through the painter, Nobbs is encouraged to dream much bigger than just own a small business.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT A film company that is partly based in Singapore is one of the investors in an upcoming Hollywood movie starring Oscar winners Tom Hanks and Halle Berry.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT The story: Love - not to mention lust, hate and jealousy - is all around as the paths of eight characters cross. Budding film-maker Kai (Eddie Peng) is caught between best friends Ni (Amber Kuo) and Yijia (Ivy Chen). Ni's father, rich businessman Lu (Doze Niu), is hooked up with the beautiful and unhappy Zoe (Shu Qi). Zoe has a fling with Mark (Mark Chao), who falls for China real estate agent Xiaoye (Zhao Wei). Eventually, an improbable romance develops between Zoe and Ni's mechanic brother Kuan (Ethan Juan).

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT Taipei - Seventies Taiwanese pop queen Fong Fei-fei's funeral was held in Hong Kong on Jan 12, right under the noses of the paparazzi there.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT There is a lot more to Austrian food than the traditional wiener schnitzel or breaded veal escalope.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT 'At least the Internet gives us the option of blocking them, consigning them to oblivion forever. The only equivalent option in the real world is strangulation'

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT Beverly Hills, California - As a golden hearse carried the body of Whitney Houston to a funeral home in her home state of New Jersey on Monday, new details emerged about the last moments of the singer who had long battled drugs and alcohol.

]]> 14 Feb 2012 22:00 GMT