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By Jumong Lee Yo Won may not be the most beautiful or sexy Korean actress, but she certainly swept many off their feet with her near flawless and dexterous acting skills in Queen Seondeok. Whether as the young Princess Deokman or the mature Queen Seondeok, Lee Yo Won is able to capture the hearts of many men with her innocent charm. Gallery: [imagebrowser id=70] [Photos collated from various sources]   Profile: Name: 이요원 / Lee Yo-won Profession: Actress Birthdate: 1980-Apr-09 Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea Height: 170cm Weight: 48kg Star sign: Aries Blood type: B Family: Husband/professional golfer Park Jin Woo and one daughter, cousin/actor Lee Joong Moon Recognition: 2009 MBC Drama Awards: Best Couple Award (with Kim Nam Gil in Queen Seon Duk) 2009 MBC Drama Awards: Female Top Excellence Award (Queen Seon Duk) 2007 SBS Acting Awards: Top Excellence Award for Surgeon Bong Dal Hee 2007 SBS Acting Awards: Popularity Award for Surgeon Bong Dal Hee 2001 KBS Acting Awards: Most Popular Actress 2001 Blue Dragon Awards: Best New Actress Award  [Source: Dramawiki]   Related articles: >> Preview of Queen Seondeok    Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge had lavished generous praise on Singapore for "the way it has been working on the Youth Olympic Games (YOG)", CNA reports. Mr Rogge was on a three day visit to Singapore where he toured various venues associated with YOG. He expressed satisfaction with the "progress" made by Singapore. "The most defining characteristic is the association between elite sport, high level sport, and culture and education - something that for many reasons we are not able to do at traditional Olympic Games because at traditional Olympic Games, there is much more pressure on time, on training, on expectations, also on the athletes," he was quoted as saying in CNA. Since winning the bid to host the inaugural YOG in 2008, the PAP has been making use of the event to promote itself in the eyes of young Singaporeans. Despite inordinate amount of time and resources poured in to publicize the event, the response from Singaporeans has been lukewarm so far, prompting the Minister in charge Dr Vivian Balakrishnan to issue an open call for Singaporeans to "rally" behind the YOG to make it a "success". He told Straits Times a week ago: “We need every Singaporean to understand that this is not just about sports or young people – it’s for all Singaporeans…..’All the effort that we invest in this will be wasted if every Singaporean doesn’t feel that this is a once-in-a-lifetime (event), that the Olympic flame is going to come to Singapore in such a close way and isn’t touched by it or affected by the Olympic spirit one way or another,” he was quoted as saying in the Straits Times. Dr Vivian's call was greeted with ridicule and derision by the online community with many netizens hurling brickbats at him. rubbish felt that YOG is a PAP event with no relationship to the rest of Singapore: "$10 mil was spent to integrate new migrants…Vivian,Why not spent another $10 mil to get them to rally for your YOG? Pom pom each sold separately…Your Singapore…Your YOG. Don’t drag the rest of the true-bred singaporeans who needs to be productive and earn a decent living so that 8.8% salary increment can be “awarded” to the “elites” who has somehow miraculously “upturn the downturn." Yamasan asked Dr Vivian to reach out to the foreigners instead: "We are daft, too stupid to understand what is YOG. We are lazy, why should we bother. Maybe a little spur in the hide may persuade us. We are lesser mortals. Events like this are not meant for people like us. Anyway, there are enough foreigners and PRs to fill the stadiums. After all, they form 1/3 of our population which is more than adequate." Concerned citizen encapsulates the sentiments of most Singaporeans: "A country with an oppressive government such as Singapore can only coerce its people to support prestige projects. Such a government will fail as it forgot that it is the people that defines national spirit and I am sad to say that the spirit of Singapore died long ago when the majority saw the reality of PAP. My country is no longer a country and why should I support a project that does nothing to my own daily struggle to survive? Let it fail I say! This is another great opportunity of give PAP a big slap!" Even as ordinary Singaporeans are struggling to make ends meet with their wages being depressed by the relentless influx of cheap foreign workers, the PAP continues to indulge in self-aggrandizement with such frivolous mega-projects to win the hearts and minds of young Singaporeans.   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to help us exceed the number of fans on the YPAP Facebook page.   Related articles: >> Only 6 participating teams in YOG soccer tournament >> Dr Vivian urged Singaporeans to rally around YOG  Read More →

By Joyce Teo from Straits Times THE Government has to shoulder some of the blame for the short supply of land and high property prices, said Mr Simon Cheong, president of the Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore (Redas), yesterday. Mr Cheong told the audience at the launch of a new property price index that land values are largely determined by the Government's reserve price system that features in all state land tenders. Yet a site's reserve price is not revealed. 'During periods of high volatility, it is not able to respond quickly enough to real-time changes happening in the marketplace,' he said. Mr Cheong, who is also chairman and chief executive of developer SC Global, picked out two recent government land tenders to illustrate the 'conundrum and the dilemma' developers face in bidding for such sites. Read rest of article here  Read More →