Singapore - Singapore's iconic merlion statue, one of the island state's most popular tourist spots, will re-open in two weeks, following some repair work after the attraction was damaged by a lightning bolt on February 28, the Singapore Tourism Board said Monday.

The 8.6-meter-tall statue, which has the body of a fish and a head of a lion, lost some parts at the top when lightning struck during a thunderstorm.

Repair work is targeted for completion by March 21, the board said in a statement.

Singapore  - Singapore will award Dutch scientist Gatze Lettinga with an award of nearly 200,000 US dollars for pioneering an environmentally-sustainable treatment of used water, the prize organizers said in a statement Monday.

Lettinga will receive the Lew Kuan Yew Water Prize 2009, named after Singapore's first prime minister and present minister mentor, in a ceremony in June.

Singapore  - Singapore's Nanyang Technological University was shaken by a second suspected suicide, days after a final-year student stabbed a lecturer and then jumped to his death.

A 24-year-old male Chinese project officer was found dead in a staff apartment Friday night, the university said in a statement Saturday.

The man was found hanged, a police spokeswoman said.

Singapore - A levy imposed on Singapore's hotels during the 2008 Formula One Grand Prix season is to be reduced this year to help the city-state's ailing tourism industry.

As Singapore's hotels are hit hard by slumping tourist arrivals, the five-night levy that hotels had to pay during the hosting of the inaugural F1 race last year would be reduced to a four-night period, the Singapore Tourism Board said Friday.

The 2009 Singapore F1 Grand Prix is scheduled to get under way in September.

Singapore  - The tiny city state of Singapore at the tip of the Malay Peninsula currently boasts what is probably Asia's largest construction site.

Despite the global economic downturn, workers toil here around the clock, seven days a week, to build Singapore's first casino complex.

The Marina Bay Sands is scheduled to open in December and apart from the casino proper it will comprise a convention and exhibition centre, some 300 shops and luxury boutiques, a museum and three hotel towers, each of them 200 metres high, with a combined 2,600 beds.

Singapore  - A Singapore court sentenced a 35-year-old man to three months in jail Thursday for hitting a schoolboy who accidentally stepped on his foot in a packed bus, a news report said.

Ismail Atan punched the boy three times on his forehead in a public bus in September, the online edition of Straits Times newspaper said.