Some had been doubtful that Miss Dalreena Poonam Gill, a football referee, would be able to make her mark in the pageant world.

Her winning of the Miss World Singapore title on Saturday night proves that anything is possible for a woman, she told The New Paper yesterday.

The 20-year-old, the youngest of only three female referees here, said: “Some people assume that a female referee has to be a tomboy. Similarly, in the pageant world, people didn’t believe I was a referee.

“I’m happy to carry this title because I can show Singaporean women that they can be sporty and at the same time be elegant. There’s always two sides to a person.”

Miss Gill, whose family members were present at the competition, had also won the Miss Crowning Glory title for her well-coiffed hair.

She bagged herself a limited-edition collectors’ gold coin worth $5,000, a cash prize of $3,000, an all-expenses paid trip to London and a crown worth $6,500.

In all, 18 contestants took part in the pageant at the One Farrer Hotel and Spa.

Refereeing and taking part in a pageant — worlds apart — were perfect for the determined person that she is, Miss Gill said.

As a teenager, she decided to follow in her father’s footsteps despite being told that it was hard work. Her father used to be a referee trainer with the Football Association of Singapore.

It was, however, her inner “vain pot” that drove her into the pageant world. And that had its roots much earlier in her life.

She added: “When I was two, I cried because my aunties wouldn’t allow me into a hair salon... The moment they finally sat me on the chair in the salon, I stopped crying. I knew that I always wanted to be on some stage.”

At the Miss World pageant, she admits she was nervous about her catwalk and the question-and-answer segment.

She said: “From previous pageants, the ‘Q&A’ segments are usually the hardest for me. The answers are in my head but when you have 400 pair of eyes staring at you, like at the Miss World Pageant, I get very nervous.”

Luckily, she aced the round with an answer on whether it is better to be idealistic or realistic.

While the streams of congratulations have not stopped, Miss Gill will soon have to prepare for the finale of the Miss World pageant, which will be held in London.

She will be getting help in the form of last year’s Miss World Singapore winner, Miss Maria-Anna Zenieris.

Miss Gill said: “She’s going to guide and tell me what’s going to happen on the day of the pageant. She will be following me (to London), and I think that alone is a morale booster.”

Lee Kuan Yew: “I think we were progressing very nicely until the surge of Islam came ... I would say today, we can integrate all religions and races except Islam.” 

The Straits Times on the claim by Lee Kuan Yew, published in his new book Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going, that Muslim integration in Singapore is failing:

MM’s [Minister Mentor's] remarks on integration draw flak

In the book, Mr Lee, when asked to assess the progress of multiracialism in Singapore, said: “I have to speak candidly to be of value, but I do not wish to offend the Muslim community.

“I think we were progressing very nicely until the surge of Islam came, and if you asked me for my observations, the other communities have easier integration – friends, intermarriages and so on, Indians with Chinese, Chinese with Indians – than Muslims. That’s the result of the surge from the Arab states.”

He added: “I would say today, we can integrate all religions and races except Islam.”

He also said: “I think the Muslims socially do not cause any trouble, but they are distinct and separate.”

Mr lee then went on to speak of how his own generation of politicians who worked with him had integrated well, including sitting down and eating together. He said: “But now, you go to schools with Malay and Chinese, there’s a halal and non-halal segment and so too, the universities. And they tend to sit separately so as not to be contaminated. All that becomes a social divide.”

He added that the result was a “veil” across peoples. Asked what Muslims in Singapore needed to do to integrate, he replied: “Be less strict on Islamic observances and say ‘Okay, I’ll eat with you.’”

Right-wing Malay rights group Perkasa slammed Mr Lee, saying he seemed to be adapting the same tactic as non-Muslim opposition leaders in Malaysia who raised sensitive issues without bothering about Muslim sensitivities.

Perkasa secretary-general Syed Hassan Syed Ali said: “Perkasa does not consider Lee Kuan Yew as being less able to respect other religions, but instead consider him a very senile old man.” 

Lee Kuan Yew: “I think we were progressing very nicely until the surge of Islam came ... I would say today, we can integrate all religions and races except Islam.” 

The Straits Times on the claim by Lee Kuan Yew, published in his new book Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going, that Muslim integration in Singapore is failing:

MM’s [Minister Mentor's] remarks on integration draw flak

In the book, Mr Lee, when asked to assess the progress of multiracialism in Singapore, said: “I have to speak candidly to be of value, but I do not wish to offend the Muslim community.

“I think we were progressing very nicely until the surge of Islam came, and if you asked me for my observations, the other communities have easier integration – friends, intermarriages and so on, Indians with Chinese, Chinese with Indians – than Muslims. That’s the result of the surge from the Arab states.”

He added: “I would say today, we can integrate all religions and races except Islam.”

He also said: “I think the Muslims socially do not cause any trouble, but they are distinct and separate.”

Mr lee then went on to speak of how his own generation of politicians who worked with him had integrated well, including sitting down and eating together. He said: “But now, you go to schools with Malay and Chinese, there’s a halal and non-halal segment and so too, the universities. And they tend to sit separately so as not to be contaminated. All that becomes a social divide.”

He added that the result was a “veil” across peoples. Asked what Muslims in Singapore needed to do to integrate, he replied: “Be less strict on Islamic observances and say ‘Okay, I’ll eat with you.’”

Right-wing Malay rights group Perkasa slammed Mr Lee, saying he seemed to be adapting the same tactic as non-Muslim opposition leaders in Malaysia who raised sensitive issues without bothering about Muslim sensitivities.

Perkasa secretary-general Syed Hassan Syed Ali said: “Perkasa does not consider Lee Kuan Yew as being less able to respect other religions, but instead consider him a very senile old man.” 

GAZA CITY. Intensive Israeli shelling killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 150 in southern Gaza Friday, medics said, shattering a fragile truce only hours after it began.

AFP correspondents said an artillery barrage of the city of Rafah was ongoing, preventing medics from recovering the dead and wounded, after the army said militants had resumed rocket fire against Israel.

Gaza militants fired rockets and shells over the border as a three-day ceasefire that began at 8am (0500 GMT) was shattered.

An AFP correspondent reported fierce fighting in the Rafah area, and Israel's army warned residents to stay in their houses as it "pursued terrorist elements."

GAZA CITY. Intensive Israeli shelling killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 150 in southern Gaza Friday, medics said, shattering a fragile truce only hours after it began.

AFP correspondents said an artillery barrage of the city of Rafah was ongoing, preventing medics from recovering the dead and wounded, after the army said militants had resumed rocket fire against Israel.

Gaza militants fired rockets and shells over the border as a three-day ceasefire that began at 8am (0500 GMT) was shattered.

An AFP correspondent reported fierce fighting in the Rafah area, and Israel's army warned residents to stay in their houses as it "pursued terrorist elements."

Five Israeli soldiers were killed by mortar fire near the Gaza border late Thursday, the army said in a statement.

The latest deaths, just hours ahead of an agreed ceasefire, put the Israeli military toll at 61 soldiers since the start of the hostilities.

"IDF (Israeli army) confirms that yesterday evening (Thursday) 5 IDF soldiers were killed during operational activity along the border with the Gaza Strip when a mortar was fired at the forces," the army statement said.  AFP

Five Israeli soldiers were killed by mortar fire near the Gaza border late Thursday, the army said in a statement.

The latest deaths, just hours ahead of an agreed ceasefire, put the Israeli military toll at 61 soldiers since the start of the hostilities.

"IDF (Israeli army) confirms that yesterday evening (Thursday) 5 IDF soldiers were killed during operational activity along the border with the Gaza Strip when a mortar was fired at the forces," the army statement said.  AFP

Separatist rebels have taken all the 196 bodies that workers recovered from the Malaysian Airlines crash site away to an unknown location, Ukraine's emergency services said Sunday.

Associated Press journalists saw the pro-Russia rebels putting bagged bodies onto trucks at the crash site Saturday in rebel-held eastern Ukraine and driving them away.

On Sunday morning, AP journalists saw no bodies at the crash site and emergency workers were searching the sprawling fields only for body parts. No armed separatists were seen at the site.

Ukraine and the separatists accuse each other of firing a surface-to-air missile Thursday at Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur some 33,000 feet (10,000 meters) above the battlefields of eastern Ukraine. Both deny the charge. All of those on the plane — 283 passengers and 15 crew — were killed.

Ukrainian Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Nataliya Bystro said Sunday that recovery workers in the rebel-held territory had been laboring under duress and were forced to give the bodies to the armed gunmen.

"Where they took the bodies — we don't know," Bystro told The Associated Press.

Separatists were not immediately available Sunday morning to comment on her statement.

News reports of how the bodies had been decaying for days in the summer sun had ignited outrage worldwide, especially from the Netherlands, home to over half the victims.

Alexander Pilyushny, an emergency worker combing the crash site for body parts Sunday morning, told the AP it took the rebels several hours to take away the bodies on Saturday. He said he and other emergency workers had no choice but to hand the bodies over to the rebels.

"They are armed and we are not," Pilyushny said. "The rebels came, put the bodies onto the trucks and took them away somewhere."

Neither Bystro nor Pilyushny could explain what happened to the 102 bodies of plane victims that have not yet been recovered.

Earlier, the Ukraine government claimed it had reached a preliminary deal with the separatists to remove the bodies.

The U.S. has pointed blame at the separatists, saying Washington believes the jetliner was probably downed by an SA-11 missile from rebel-held territory and "we cannot rule out technical assistance from Russian personnel."

The latest U.S. intelligence assessment suggests that more than one missile system was given to the separatists by the Russians in the last week or so. But both Russia and the rebels vehemently deny any role in downing the plane.

Despite calls by world leaders for an independent, international investigation into the plane's downing, armed separatists limited observers' access to the crash site on Friday and Saturday.

"We have to be very careful," said Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for the 24 international monitors. "We are unarmed civilians, so we are not in a position to argue with people with heavy arms."

The U.S. State Department described the rebels' refusal to give monitors a full access to the site "an affront to all those who lost loved ones and to the dignity the victims deserve."

Separatist rebels have taken all the 196 bodies that workers recovered from the Malaysian Airlines crash site away to an unknown location, Ukraine's emergency services said Sunday.

Associated Press journalists saw the pro-Russia rebels putting bagged bodies onto trucks at the crash site Saturday in rebel-held eastern Ukraine and driving them away.

On Sunday morning, AP journalists saw no bodies at the crash site and emergency workers were searching the sprawling fields only for body parts. No armed separatists were seen at the site.

Ukraine and the separatists accuse each other of firing a surface-to-air missile Thursday at Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur some 33,000 feet (10,000 meters) above the battlefields of eastern Ukraine. Both deny the charge. All of those on the plane — 283 passengers and 15 crew — were killed.

Ukrainian Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Nataliya Bystro said Sunday that recovery workers in the rebel-held territory had been laboring under duress and were forced to give the bodies to the armed gunmen.

"Where they took the bodies — we don't know," Bystro told The Associated Press.

Separatists were not immediately available Sunday morning to comment on her statement.

News reports of how the bodies had been decaying for days in the summer sun had ignited outrage worldwide, especially from the Netherlands, home to over half the victims.

Alexander Pilyushny, an emergency worker combing the crash site for body parts Sunday morning, told the AP it took the rebels several hours to take away the bodies on Saturday. He said he and other emergency workers had no choice but to hand the bodies over to the rebels.

"They are armed and we are not," Pilyushny said. "The rebels came, put the bodies onto the trucks and took them away somewhere."

Neither Bystro nor Pilyushny could explain what happened to the 102 bodies of plane victims that have not yet been recovered.

Earlier, the Ukraine government claimed it had reached a preliminary deal with the separatists to remove the bodies.

The U.S. has pointed blame at the separatists, saying Washington believes the jetliner was probably downed by an SA-11 missile from rebel-held territory and "we cannot rule out technical assistance from Russian personnel."

The latest U.S. intelligence assessment suggests that more than one missile system was given to the separatists by the Russians in the last week or so. But both Russia and the rebels vehemently deny any role in downing the plane.

Despite calls by world leaders for an independent, international investigation into the plane's downing, armed separatists limited observers' access to the crash site on Friday and Saturday.

"We have to be very careful," said Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for the 24 international monitors. "We are unarmed civilians, so we are not in a position to argue with people with heavy arms."

The U.S. State Department described the rebels' refusal to give monitors a full access to the site "an affront to all those who lost loved ones and to the dignity the victims deserve."

GAZA CITY: Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip killed 11 people early Saturday, medics said, on day 12 of a major operation against the Palestinian territory.

The first strike killed seven people outside a mosque in the southern city of Khan Yunis, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP, adding that three of the dead were from the same family.

One woman was among those killed, Qudra said.

Three more people were killed shortly afterwards, in three separate strikes in Beit Hanun in the north, Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, and another in Khan Yunis.

In Khan Yunis, a later strike on a home killed 28-year-old Raed al-Laqan.

The deaths took the toll from an Israeli operation to stamp out rocket fire from Gaza to 307, many of them women and children.

One Israeli civilian and one Israeli soldier have been killed since the campaign started on July 8, and several injured.

Some 2,250 Palestinians have been injured, according to Qudra.

Operation Protective Edge is the bloodiest conflict in the besieged coastal enclave since 2009.

Israel launched a ground offensive late Thursday, starting a new phase in the operation which it said aimed partly to destroy tunnels used by the Strip's main power, Islamist movement Hamas.

GAZA CITY: Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip killed 11 people early Saturday, medics said, on day 12 of a major operation against the Palestinian territory.

The first strike killed seven people outside a mosque in the southern city of Khan Yunis, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP, adding that three of the dead were from the same family.

One woman was among those killed, Qudra said.

Three more people were killed shortly afterwards, in three separate strikes in Beit Hanun in the north, Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, and another in Khan Yunis.

In Khan Yunis, a later strike on a home killed 28-year-old Raed al-Laqan.

The deaths took the toll from an Israeli operation to stamp out rocket fire from Gaza to 307, many of them women and children.

One Israeli civilian and one Israeli soldier have been killed since the campaign started on July 8, and several injured.

Some 2,250 Palestinians have been injured, according to Qudra.

Operation Protective Edge is the bloodiest conflict in the besieged coastal enclave since 2009.

Israel launched a ground offensive late Thursday, starting a new phase in the operation which it said aimed partly to destroy tunnels used by the Strip's main power, Islamist movement Hamas.

ISRAELI troops pushed deeper into Gaza on Friday to destroy rocket launching sites and tunnels, firing volleys of tank shells and clashing with Palestinian fighters in a high-stakes ground offensive meant to weaken the enclave’s Hamas rulers.

The assault opens a new, potentially extended and bloodier stage in the conflict following a 10-day Israeli campaign of more than 2,000 airstrikes against Gaza that had failed to halt relentless Hamas rocket fire on Israeli cities.

The government said its goal is to stop rocket attacks, destroy the network of Hamas tunnels into Israel and weaken Hamas militarily. But there are calls from hardliners in Israel to completely crush Hamas and drive it from power in Gaza. That could mean a longer operation with the danger of mounting casualties in a conflict that has already seen at least 265 Palestinians killed in Gaza, around a quarter of them children.

Israel had been reticent about launching a ground offensive for fear of endangering its own soldiers and drawing international condemnation over mounting Palestinian civilian deaths.

But after an attempt by Hamas to infiltrate Israel on Thursday — when 13 armed militants sneaked through a tunnel from Gaza, only to be killed by an airstrike as they emerged inside Israel — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the order that evening for thousands of troops on standby to enter Gaza.

“We chose to begin this operation after the other options were exhausted and with the understanding that without the operation the price we will pay can be very high,” he said Friday before a special Cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv.

Israel saw its first military death of the conflict in the early hours of the ground assault. The circumstances behind the death of Staff Sgt. Eitan Barak, 20, were not made clear: Hamas’s military wing said it ambushed Israeli units in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, but Israeli media said Barak was likely killed by friendly fire. An Israeli civilian died from mortar fire earlier in the week, and several have been wounded.

The Israeli military said it killed nearly 20 militants in exchanges of fire. Gaza health officials said 25 Palestinians have been killed since the ground operation began, including three teenage siblings from the Abu Musallam family who were killed when a tank shell hit their home. 

At the morgue, one of the victims’ faces was blackened by soot and he and his siblings were each wrapped in a white burial shroud. Their father, Ismail, said the three were sleeping when the shell struck, and that he had to dig them out from under the rubble. 

Israel says it is going to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties and blames them on Hamas, accusing it of firing from within residential neighbourhoods and using its civilians as “human shields.” The streets of Gaza City were largely deserted, though some roadside vegetable vendors remained open. The sound of steady shelling could be heard across Gaza as Israel continued to strike targets from the air, and buildings shook as missiles hit.

“The ground offensive does not scare us and we pledge to drown the occupation army in Gaza mud,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.

Hamas has survived Israeli offensives in the past, including a major three-week ground operation in January 2009 from which it emerged militarily weaker, but in each case it recovered. The group controls an arsenal of thousands of rockets, some long range and powerful, and it has built a system of underground bunkers.

But Hamas is weaker now than it was during the previous two offensives — from 2008-9 and 2012 — with little international or even regional support, with its main allies Turkey and Qatar largely sidelined by others in the region. Protests against the offensive took place Friday in Jordan, Turkey and the West Bank. AP