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Weekly news round-up: Singapore General Election results, Tiger Airways and Twitter’s Tweetdeck deal

Meld Magazine

Mon May 09 2011

Singapore_General_Election
In this week’s news round-up, Steven Tannason and Connie Foong bring you the results of the Singapore General Election 2011, reports of Tiger Airways’ poor run and Twitter’s Tweetdeck deal.

Singapore General Election Singapore went to the polls on Saturday May 8 in a watershed moment in Singapore’s political history. In this year’s general elections, a record 82 out of 87 parliamentary seats were contested, with the Opposition winning six seats, an increase from two in the previous election. Their gains included winning a GRC (group representation constituency, which are geographical electoral divisions) for the first time in history. Though the governing party remains firmly in power, the People’s Action Party (PAP) received just more than 60 per cent of the popular vote, its worst showing since independence in 1965. The PAP also lost two of its cabinet ministers in this election: Senior Minister for Finance and Transport Lim Hwee Hua, and perhaps in the biggest upset of all, Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo, who lost his 23-year stronghold in Aljunied GRC to the Workers’ Party. The gains made by the Opposition in this election show a changing tide in Singapore politics, which has always been one-party dominated. For more in-depth coverage of the Singapore General Election, you can read the Wall Street Journal’s overview. Reuters has also published a post-election analysis. . Tiger Airways’s safety issue Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has asked budget airline Tiger Airways to “show cause” why its license should not be revoked – the first show cause notice CASA has issued in ten years. The airline’s newest jet has also been groundedas a result, adding to the string of problems that have plagued the troubled airline, including several flight delays and cancellations in April. According to aviation sources, CASA’s concerns were over the supervision and control of maintenance practices, rather than problems about specific maintenance items. The organisation carries out regular safety audits and checks on Australian airlines and other air operators.

Twitter’s Tweetdeck deal Twitter has bought over Tweetdeck for as much as $50 million, according to TechCrunch. However, no official announcement has been made yet. TweetDeck is a third-party application which allows users to integrate all their social media, including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, all in one platform. Around 40 per cent of tweets are from such third-party applications, a majority of which comes from TweetDeck. Twitter has also acquired UberTwitter, EchoFon and other Twitter-related startups. TweetDeck is the latest in what is seen to be an aggressive move on Twitter’s part to protect its platform, brand and revenue.

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