Photos of the misspelt name of Cathay Pacific with a missing “f” after a fresh paint job have emerged on social media on Wednesday, drawing laughs even from the airline itself.

Republishing the photos from the Hong Kong Aviation Discussion Board (HKADB) on the airline’s Twitter page, Cathay Pacific wrote: “Oops this special livery won’t last long! She’s going back to the shop!”

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that an engineer for Haeco, a sister company of the airline, was baffled by the mistake which could cost thousands of dollars to correct.

It was unclear whether staff from Cathay Pacific or Haeco was responsible for the error, said the SCMP.

In all, six Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) and one Strategic Framework Agreement were signed and exchanged on the sidelines of the 14th Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) meeting held at the St Regis hotel.

Among them were deals to replicate the government-to-government project, Tianjin Eco-city; exchanges and collaboration between artists and art groups from both sides; the setting up of a National University of Singapore research institute in Chongqing; and cooperation in emerging industries such as advanced manufacturing, biomedicine and nanotechnology applications.

The annual JCBC meeting is the highest-level platform to discuss cooperation between Singapore and China. This is the first time that Mr Han is attending as co-chair, after his predecessor, former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli, retired last October.

Mr Han is a member of the top decision-making body in China, the Chinese Communist Party’s seven-member Politburo Standing Committee.

Both Mr Han and Mr Teo witnessed the signing of the seven agreements after concluding their bilateral meeting. They also attended meetings that took stock of the progress of the three government-to-government projects: Suzhou Industrial Park, Tianjin Eco-city and Chongqing Connectivity Initiative.

The seven deals are:

1. A joint work group, comprising senior government officials from Singapore and China, will be formed to oversee the implementation of an MOU signed to promote the replication of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city’s development experience in other Chinese cities, and in future, along the Belt and Road regions.

2. The Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Suzhou Municipal People’s Government signed an MOU to deepen exchanges through attachment of Singapore government officials to Suzhou. The attachment programme aims to enhance people-to-people linkages through areas like training and the sharing of public administration experiences.

3. An MOU was exchanged to facilitate the training of senior officials from both countries to reaffirm the longstanding relations between Singapore and China and to deepen the cooperation under Singapore’s third government-to-government project with China – the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity.

4. National Arts Council and the China National Arts Fund signed their first MOU to strengthen exchanges in the arts, and to encourage collaboration between artists and to develop new creative work for audiences in both countries.

5. National University of Singapore (NUS) and Chongqing Liangjiang New Area Administrative Committee signed a strategic framework agreement to jointly establish a research institute in Chongqing. The NUS (Chongqing) Research Institute, also known as NUSRI@CQ will be NUS’ second overseas research institute in China after Suzhou.

It is to serve as a base for NUS to conduct education and scientific research, along with technology transfer and commercialisation activities, which will strengthen Sino-Singapore cooperation in western China.

The institute will “serve as an important gateway for NUS to extend our reach in the western region of China”, Professor Ho Teck Hua, NUS senior deputy president and provost, said in a statement.

6. An MOU to cooperate in entrepreneurship, innovation and commercialisation was exchanged between Enterprise Singapore, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, and Suzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee.

The parties will work together to grow Singapore and Suzhou start-ups and to develop partnerships in emerging industries such as advanced manufacturing, biomedicine and nanotechnology applications.

7. An MOU on intellectual property cooperation was signed between Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City Administrative Committee, IP ValueLab and Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City Investment and Development Co to establish an “International Intellectual Property Innovation Service Centre” in the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City.

The director of the city’s Department of Animal Health, Nguyen Ngoc Son, told Lao Dong Newspaper on September 12 that “following a direction from the city’s People’s Committee that called on residents to ease off eating dog meat, we are building a plan to gradually phase out the slaughtering and trading of dog meat. By 2021 there will be no dog meat restaurants in the city centre”.

This photo taken on July 26, 2012 shows slaughtered dogs hanging up for sale in front of a dog meat shop on a street in Hanoi.// AFP PHOTO

The People’s Committee had asked city residents the previous day to stop eating dog and cat meat, and urged local district authorities to launch campaigns to warn people about the risks of contracting diseases, including potentially deadly rabies and leptospirosis, from eating dog and cat meat.

The committee also said that the slaughter and sale of dogs and cats for their meat had damaged Hanoi’s image.

The Soi Dog Foundation, which has been working with the Hanoi People’s Committee to end the dog meat trade, was surprised and delighted by the announcement.

A woman sells dog meat at a market stall in Hanoi, Vietnam, 17 September 2018. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

The charity’s founder, John Dalley, said: “This is wonderful news. We sincerely hope that, step by step, this planned ban will be spread out across the entire city and will be emulated by other cities in Vietnam.

“There is no place for cruelty in culture. Hanoi is growing into a 21st century city, and practices that belong in the dark ages should be cleared away.”

Soi Dog’s representative in Vietnam, Bao Tran, said: “This is huge news here. It was the biggest story on all news outlets in Vietnam, and seems to be widely supported by people.

“The vital component now is for Hanoi to discuss and create the legal framework for banning the dog and cat meat trade. Soi Dog will be happy to help and guide in any way we can.”

The Soi Dog Foundation was instrumental in tackling the organised smuggling of dogs out of Thailand via Laos to Vietnam. Today that trade has dwindled to a trickle.

Dalley was also a member of the Thai government committee that drafted an anti-cruelty law that came into force in 2014. The law made the eating of dog and cat meat in Thailand illegal.

Never in the wildest dreams of one unnamed China Eastern Airlines flight attendant has it occurred to her that her boyfriend’s heartwarming mid-flight proposal will cost her her job.

In May, the sweet video of her boyfriend asking her hand in marriage went viral in Chinese social media.

The video was first shared by Chinese news video platform Pear Video on May 19. Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site and social media platform, also uploaded the video on its YouTube channel on the same day.

Still in shock, she made use of the in-flight announcement system to thank the passengers who had applauded and filmed the romantic gesture.

A recent development on the story, however, put a damper on the supposedly happy event.

Apparently, China Eastern Airlines sent a letter dismissing the flight attendant from the company, according to Liaoning STV via Singapore’s Channel 8 on Sept12.

The dismissal letter apparently stated that the reason she was removed from her post was that the romantic proposal caused a disturbance. Such disruption could have endangered the safety of the passengers.

The airlines’ decision became a point of contention on Chinese social media. Some netizens were against the decision, going as far as to call the airlines’ officials as “inhuman” for firing her over a marriage proposal.

Others, meanwhile, were in favour of their decision, stating that such romantic gestures should be performed away from the eyes of the public.

“Before the plane takes off, it is important to evenly distribute the weight of the baggage and passengers in the plane,” one netizen said, providing an explanation for the airlines’ decision.

“A disturbance like that of a marriage proposal may cause passengers to unfasten seat belts and move to different places in the plane. This, in turn, may affect the plane’s balance and air flow.”

China Eastern Airlines have yet to comment or issue an official statement on the matter, as of this writing.

    The 63-year-old conservative secured 553 votes against 254 won by former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba, a hawkish self-confessed “military geek”, in a two-horse race for leader of the Liberal Democratic Party.

The win effectively hands Abe three more years as PM, giving him the chance of breaking the record for the nation’s longest serving premiership held by Taro Katsura, a revered politician who served three times between 1901 and 1913.

To loud cheers of “banzai” — the Japanese equivalent of “three cheers” — from party members, a grinning Abe said: “The battle is over. Let’s build a new Japan by joining hands and uniting.”

Shinichi Nishikawa, professor of politics at Meiji University in Tokyo, told AFP that the vote was effectively a referendum on Abe’s record that he successfully negotiated.

“But he can’t wholeheartedly welcome the result as he couldn’t win overwhelmingly.”

Public support for Abe — a political thoroughbred whose grandfather and father both held power — has recovered after he managed to survive a series of cronyism and cover-up scandals.

Reconfirmed in power, Abe will head to New York this weekend to attend the UN General Assembly and hold a summit with US President Donald Trump.

Abe and Trump, who enjoy each other’s company on the golf course and are close diplomatic allies, are expected to analyse the latest inter-Korean summit.

But they will also have to confront a growing trade dispute as Trump sees Tokyo among “unfair” trade partners.

 – ‘Forever renounce war’ –

While Japanese voters put the economy and social security as their top priorities, Abe aims to use the election to push his dream of reforming the country’s post-World War II pacifist constitution.

Nationalist Abe has frequently voiced his wish to rewrite the charter, imposed by the victorious US occupiers, which forces the country to “forever renounce war” and dictates that armed forces will “never be maintained”.

Abe insists any changes would merely remove the country’s well-equipped Self-Defense Forces from the constitutional paradox whereby they should not technically exist.

“It’s time to stipulate both the Self-Defense Forces and the protection of Japan’s peace and independence in the constitution,” Abe said in his last stump speech in Tokyo.

“Together with you all, I want to work on reforming the constitution,” he said in his victory speech on Thursday.

But any changes to the text would be hugely sensitive in pacifist Japan and almost certainly greeted with fury in China and the Koreas, 20th-century victims of Japanese military aggression.

Even if Abe manages to force a revision through parliament, he would face a referendum, raising the prospect of a Brexit-style political meltdown if the people vote against him, said Yu Uchiyama, political scientist from the University of Tokyo.

In addition, surveys show that tinkering with the legal text is far from top of most Japanese voters’ to-do list, as the country faces an ageing and declining population and a still-sluggish economy.

Acknowledging concerns over the economic outlook, Abe said he plans to introduce “bold” stimulus measures to ease the expected impact of a tax hike scheduled for October next year.

Japan’s economy has been expanding for the past few years at a slow pace thanks to the Bank of Japan’s ultra-loose monetary policy and huge government spending, which have led to a weak yen — a key positive element for Japanese exporters.

But analysts warned US-led trade wars could be a major risk factor for an economy still struggling to win a long battle against deflation.

Local media said Abe plans to reshuffle his cabinet on October 1. However, he is expected to retain Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso, a political ally who has backed his “Abenomics” strategy to stimulate the world’s third-largest economy.

The three young women, all aged 19, left their Osaka flat disheveled and trashed, as per the Beijing Youth Daily via South China Morning Post last Sept. 13.

The owner, known only as Cheng, took pictures of his place after he found it in a bad condition last Sept. 10.

Cheng took to Chinese micro-blogging website Weibo that day to share pictures of his flat, which soon went viral.

The pictures show a messy sink dumped with used utensils, wrappers and other kitchenware. A chair can also be seen resting on top of a toilet, while rude messages and a doodle of feces were scribbled on the visitor’s book.

Cheng also found the hall strewn with trash and smelling of spoiled food.

It was a first for Cheng, who shared that he has “never encountered such a situation before.”

“It costs around 3,000 yen (around $27) in Japan to clean a room that is this filthy,” Cheng was quoted as saying. “I filed a complaint on the booking platform and requested them to pay twice the cleaning fee.”

Cheng, however, added that the women were defiant when he asked them to pay double the cleaning fee.

“We paid money to stay here, not to clean it,” one of the women reportedly told him. “This isn’t our home so we don’t need to clean it for you.”

The three young women were initially unashamed and unrepentant for their mess, but eventually apologized when they were publicly shamed online.

“We now want to seek forgiveness,” one of them wrote on Weibo last Sept 11.“Maybe it’s too late. Maybe we deserve it. But we are sorry and we are trying our best to solve the problem.”

The women also said in the report that they’re willing to apologize to Cheng and pay due compensation. The three are now in talks with Cheng about the issue.

Meanwhile, Airbnb in their statement, said they were investigating the incident.

They added that they have a “landlord guarantee fund” for such cases when property owners suffer from financial losses due to their tenants’ actions.