News Outlook

Best to call for a taxi if you need to take a cab with your pet
I refer to the letter, 'Cabbies avoided me just because I was holding a puppy' (Online forum, Feb 7).Unlike many European countries where Man's best friend is allowed in buses and the subways, the only means of public transportation for our... [Read more]

Insurgents go undercover
BANGKOK - MUSLIM insurgents have infiltrated universities and are using them as launch pads for attacks in Bangkok, Thailand's defence minister said yesterday. The comments by Defence Minister Boonrawd Somtat followed warnings that Muslim separatist militants may be planning to expand... [Read more]

Global impact
Investors with Japanese assets are seeing them forge ahead as the economy shows signs of real recovery. Tokyo's Topix index is at a 15-year high, while the Nikkei average is around its highest since May 2000. But global investors, in general,... [Read more]

Beijing slams Chen's name-change move
BEIJING - BEIJING condemned Taiwan's President yesterday for dropping 'China' from the names of state-run firms and introducing 'distorted' history books, saying the moves were aimed at severing links with the mainland.But President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan told reporters yesterday that... [Read more]

Shop owners should train their salespeople to be knowledgeable about products they sell
As a frequent traveller, I cannot help but notice a very distinct difference in service quality in Taiwan and Hong Kong and that of Singapore.Singapore department store sales assistants offer services only when asked. I can tell that some are just... [Read more]

Sports World
ENGLAND TRIUMPHSYDNEY: England ended a run of nine straight losses to Australia with a 92-run win in a tri-series one-day cricket international yesterday.That kept alive their chances of leap-frogging New Zealand into the best-of-three finals.Ed Joyce belted 107 to help England... [Read more]

Indonesia insists it has good reasons to ban sand exports
JAKARTA - INDONESIA has rejected Singapore's questioning of its decision to ban sand exports, maintaining that it has 'good reasons' to do so.Indonesia's reaction, published in the Jakarta Post yesterday, followed a discussion of the issue in Singapore's Parliament on Monday.'We... [Read more]

S'pore research may slash cost of radio tag readers
COMING soon - shopping carts that scan purchases and total up the bill and hotel rooms that unlock the door automatically for guests. These could well become a reality with researchers at the Institute of Microelectronics (IME) discovering a way to... [Read more]

Parliament sitting
PARLIAMENT will sit on Monday, Feb 12, according to a statement from the Clerk of Parliament.... [Read more]

Thais burn effigy of S'pore minister
BANGKOK - SOME 200 Thais yesterday burned an effigy of a Singapore leader outside the Republic's Embassy here in yet another protest following a diplomatic spat between the two countries. The protesters said they belonged to several groups, including Ramkhamhaeng University... [Read more]

Jakarta outlines plans to fight yearly haze
JAKARTA - INDONESIA yesterday spelled out its plans to fight the forest fires that shroud the region in haze each year, in hopes of convincing potential donor countries and agencies to help pay for the battle. Experts have estimated that Jakarta... [Read more]