50 'statues' to mark Marrow Donor Day

Fifty "statues" will stand along Orchard Road today, symbolising patients whose lives came to a stop while waiting for bone marrow donations.

The event by the Bone Marrow Donor Programme will mark the first World Marrow Donor Day today, a new annual global campaign to raise awareness of bone marrow donation. Foreign and Law Minister K. Shanmugam, the programme's patron, will visit the "statues".

Attempt at lantern parade record

More than 10,000 people will carry lanterns during a walk at the Singapore Sports Hub today, to raise funds for those with special needs and to set a new world record.

The Association for Persons with Special Needs hopes its first walkathon will break the Guinness World Record for the largest lantern parade. This is now held by a lantern parade of 10,568 people along the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway tunnel in September 2008.

By-election test for new Australian PM

Just days after ousting Mr Tony Abbott from the top job, Australia's new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's popularity will be put to the test today as his Liberal Party seeks to hang on to a parliamentary seat in Western Australia in a by-election.

Canning, a district that includes the working-class southern fringes of Perth, saw its jobless rate rise from 3.9 per cent three years ago to 6.1 per cent last month.