Kate Middleton set to eclipse Diana's celeb status

Kate Middleton is set to overtake Britain's Princess Diana as the most talked-about woman in the world's media, according to a study released on Sunday by the Global Language Monitor. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

LOS ANGELES - ROYAL bride-to-be Kate Middleton is set to overtake Britain's Princess Diana as the most talked-about woman in the world's media, according to a study released on Sunday by the Global Language Monitor.

With two weeks to go before she marries Prince William in London's Westminster Abbey on April 29, Kate Middleton is already posting Diana-type numbers in terms of news worthiness and celebrity status on top global media sites as well as the Internet and social media, the study said.
'Kate Middleton is set to eclipse Princess Di as the media star of the royal family,' said Paul JJ Payack, president of Texas-based Global Language Monitor.

'In fact, Kate could surpass all Internet, social media, and global print and electronic media citations by the time the royal wedding-related stories are compiled.'

The study compared media citations of Kate Middleton with those of the late Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Prince William, Prince Harry, and Charles's wife Camilla Parker Bowles.

For the leading global media, the citations were measured over the last three months, as well as all the archives available. -- REUTERS

Source The Straits Times

Kate Middleton's parents 'to pay $203,000 for wedding'

Hotel suites, bridal gowns, bridesmaids' dresses, the maid of honour's outfit and the honeymoon will all be paid for by Carole and Michael Middleton, The Sunday Times newspaper said, without citing its sources. -- PHOTO: AFP

LONDON - KATE Middleton's parents will pay nearly 100,000 pounds (S$203,000) for their daughter's wedding to Prince William later this month, a report said on Sunday.

Hotel suites, bridal gowns, bridesmaids' dresses, the maid of honour's outfit and the honeymoon will all be paid for by Carole and Michael Middleton, The Sunday Times newspaper said, without citing its sources.

They will pay for several suites at the Goring hotel in the upmarket London district of Belgravia, including a two-bedroom, five-room suite for Kate and her sister Pippa, her maid of honour, said the paper.

Carole and Michael and their son James, Kate's brother, will also reportedly take rooms in the hotel, not far from Buckingham Palace, for the April 29 wedding at London's Westminster Abbey.

The hotel bill alone is expected to exceed 20,000 pounds, the paper said.

The Middletons, who have earned millions from their party goods business 'Party Pieces', are thought to have paid 30,000 pounds for Kate's bridal gowns and 20,000 pounds for Pippa's dress, it added. -- AFP

Source The Straits Times

PHOTO GALLERY

Compiled By K Chen

Briton who drowned was senior bank exec

About 180 people were at rooftop bar of Fullerton Bay Hotel when the man fell

By Amanda Tan

There is a metal railing and a glass barrier along the edge of the rooftop Lantern bar at Fullerton Bay Hotel. Mr William Hart is believed to have breached both barriers before falling into the waters around Marina Bay on Thursday night. -- ST PHOTO: BRYAN VAN DER BEEK

A BRITISH man who died after falling nearly 30m from the rooftop of Fullerton Bay Hotel into the waters around Marina Bay last Thursday was the head of sales at the Bank of China International here.

Mr William Hart, 37, was at Lantern, a seventh-floor bar at the boutique hotel along Collyer Quay, when he was believed to have breached a metal railing and a glass barrier before plunging into the waters below at about 11.25pm.

Mr Giovanni Viterale, general manager of the hotel, told The Sunday Times that the Briton was in a group of four. It is believed one of them is a friend who was visiting from Canada.

While it is unclear how Mr Hart fell, one theory is that he had leapt from the rooftop in a game of dare.

There were about 180 guests at the bar when the incident happened, said Mr Viterale, who added that Mr Hart was not a regular customer at the bar.

When asked if staff members had noticed him climbing over the railing, Mr Viterale said: 'Unfortunately not, or we would have taken immediate and preventive action.'

Source The Straits Times

'Human milk' to hit Chinese market in 2 years

BEIJING - CHINESE consumers will soon be able to buy dairy products that are produced by genetically modified cattle and contain most of the nutrients as in human breast milk.

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has given the green light to test production of the human-like milk, which will be available on the Chinese market in two years, said Li Ning, a leading researcher at the State Key Laboratories for AgroBiotechnology at China Agricultural University.
The milk, which cows produced after researchers tweaked their genetic codes, is rich in lactalbumin, lactoferrin, and lysozume - proteins that abound in human breast milk, said Mr Li. 'Such proteins can be easily absorbed by the human body and can boost the immune system, which is why breastfeeding is always better than using bovine milk and infant formula,' noted Mr Li.
Though not yet a perfect substitute for breast milk, as it lacks some antibodies and a protein that helps boost babies' intelligence, Li said that the 'humanised' milk had great marketing and industrial potential.
"The milk pumped out by our cattle will be a cheap source for such rare proteins, which are precious components hailed by the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries," said Li, adding that the annual sales of lactoferrin are expected to reach US$5 billion (S$6.2 billion) worldwide.
Genetic engineering has been a rising technology studied by the pharmaceutical and biological industries. It is now widely used to mass-produce vaccines and drugs like insulin. Food produced using genetic modification, however, has been met with less public and official recognition. -- CHINA DAILY/ANN

Source The Straits Times

Group of investors urges Barclays to quit UK

Barclays referred to recent comments made by executives. -- PHOTO: AFP

LONDON - A GROUP of major shareholders in Barclays would prefer the British bank to be domiciled outside the UK, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
The newspaper said the group, believed to account for more than 10 per cent of the bank's equity, had told the board a domicile in New York or elsewhere would be better from a tax and a regulatory perspective.
The climate for major banks in Britain was becoming 'increasingly toxic', it quoted one unidentified institutional investor as saying.
Barclays referred to recent comments made by executives.
Chief executive Bob Diamond last month said Barclays was looking at options for its domicile, while New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he would welcome the bank which has been based in Britain since it was founded in 1690. However, Mr Diamond said the bank hoped not to move.
Some major shareholders in top UK banks have told Reuters the lenders need to consider moving if regulations become too draconian, although proposals last week from a powerful panel assessing UK banks was less harsh than many bankers feared. -- REUTERS

Source : The Straits Times

Quiet and brilliant, Taiwan's HTC is smartphone star

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/TechandScience/Story/STIStory_657815.html

HTC's market value is now around US$33 billion (S$41 billion), about the same level as Nokia and surpassing Blackberry maker Research In Motion's (RIM's) US$28 billion, according to analysts. -- PHOTO: AFP

TAIPEI - TAIWANESE smartphone maker HTC has risen to global prominence by transforming itself from a contract maker into a viable brand, one of the toughest feats in the fiercely competitive hi-tech industry.
'Quietly Brilliant' is the motto adorning HTC's advertisements - and quietly, brilliantly it has managed to grow and grow, until recently it stunned the industry by becoming as big as Nokia.
'Today HTC is synonymous with smartphones,' said Wang Ying-Yu, a research manager at Industrial Technology Research Institute, a think-tank in the city of Hsinchu in northern Taiwan.
'It has been more successful than any other company in Taiwan at pulling off the difficult task of building a brand,' he said.
HTC's market value is now around US$33 billion (S$41 billion), about the same level as Nokia and surpassing Blackberry maker Research In Motion's (RIM's) US$28 billion, according to analysts.
HTC has also set several records in Taiwan, and was listed as the most profitable company last year, while co-founder and chairman Cher Wang is currently the island's richest person. -- AFP

Source The Straits Times