Top stories from The Straits Times on Sunday, April 14

Good morning! Here are our top stories to kick-start your Sunday, April 14


Calm before a storm: What's at stake in Indonesia's presidential election

An official at a storage area where ballot boxes and voting materials are prepared for the upcoming elections, in Pademangan, Jakarta, last Thursday. There has been an increasing sense on the ground that the final outcome may lie in the hands of wildcard voters who may yet tip the balance of a tight and high-stakes race. ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR

As campaign silence starts for Wednesday's election in the world's fourth-most populous country, swing voters and abstainers look set to send polls down to the wire.

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Four injured victims taken to hospital after shooting outside Melbourne nightclub: Police

A photo said to be of the scene uploaded to social media. PHOTO: TWITTER

Two victims are in a critical condition, the Victoria Police said in a statement.

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Hidden women's abodes: Singapore's vegetarian nuns and aunts

Ritual costumes donated by the defunct Vegetarian Hall of the Blessed Lotus to Dr Hue Guan Thye, who hopes to set up a museum in homage to vegetarian halls.
The prayer room at the back of the Guanyin Gong vegetarian hall in Cuff Road. The woman in the black and white portrait is the late Ms Wong Ying, the hall's founder. There are about 30 such halls in Singapore today and they have housed unmarried, widowed, destitute, abused and orphaned girls and women since the late 19th century. ST PHOTO: JASMINE CHOONG, KEVIN LIM

Researcher studies little-known local history of vegetarian halls whose numbers are dwindling.

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'He beat her up on their wedding night': In sickness and in health - when the mentally ill marry

Susie and David have an unusual love story. They met and fell in love while both were patients at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) 11 years ago. ST PHOTO: JANICE TAI

He has borderline personality disorder, she has schizophrenia - studies show those with such illnesses tend to pair up.

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IMF warns govts not to rock the boat in choppy economic waters

The International Monetary Fund last week downgraded its outlook for world growth this year to the lowest since the financial crisis a decade ago, as conditions worsened in most major advanced economies. PHOTO: AFP

Senior official urges US and other nations to resolve trade conflicts to avoid a downturn.

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It Changed My Life: Jeweller struggled with dyslexia but he never gave up

Mr Michael Koh in a 1989 photo with the late Brother Joseph McNally, who admitted him into LaSalle despite his not having the prerequisite qualifications. Mr Michael Koh at a sapphire mine in Chanthaburi - known as the City of Gems - in the east of T
Mr Michael Koh, 47, with his wife Ms Achillea Teng, 45, who was his junior at LaSalle College of the Arts. The couple got married in 1999 and Ms Teng left her job at a well-known local jeweller to work with her husband a year later. After many trials and tribulations, Mr Koh is today the founder of Caratell, a high-end jewellery store which counts neighbouring royalty as its clients and which has an annual turnover of more than $5 million. ST PHOTO: ONG WEE JIN

At age 15, he bumped into Brother McNally at LaSalle and that changed his life.

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Singapore's yearly waste weighs the same as 530,000 double-decker buses, and that's not sustainable: Masagos

The amount of waste disposed of in Singapore has jumped seven times over the last 40 years. PHOTO: ST FILE

The aim is to turn trash into treasure, and reuse and recycle resources for as long as possible, he said.

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'She is my god': Childhood friends finally tie the knot in their 70s

Velappan Vellayan married his childhood friend Savithiri Kaliappan at Sree Narayana Mission Nursing Home where he has lived for the past 11 years. ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN

They wed at Sree Narayana Mission Nursing Home in Yishun after a decade of courtship.

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Jewel Changi Airport set to be icon for Singapore, says architect Moshe Safdie

Jewel Changi Airport architect Moshe Safdie drew inspiration from the science fiction film Avatar (2009), which had a landscape that he says blew his mind. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

The multi-award-winning architect was inspired by 2009 film Avatar, and aimed for an attraction that would appeal to all.

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New York City to install ERP-style toll in bid to ease traffic

New York is set to become the first city in the United States to implement congestion pricing. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Drivers will be charged once a day for entering CBD under plan to be effected after 2020.

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