News Today

Fatal crash: Fine, ban for motorist
A MOTORIST who caused the death of an 86-year-old pedestrian was yesterday fined $6,000 and banned from driving for five years.Indonesian Bernard Nasmi, 57, was driving along the extreme right lane of Woodlands Avenue 3 when he failed to keep a... [Read more]

Buyer beware
World of electrical & electronic goods 99 No. of cases filed (January to December 2006)Top complaints1. Defective goods2. MisrepresentationCASE STUDYA consumer purchased a digital audio player from a retail outlet. But within three days of his purchase, he discovered that the... [Read more]

One nation, two ways to mark Chinese New Year
BEIJING - CHINESE New Year usually begins with a little bloodletting for the Miao family in rural Inner Mongolia, one of the remotest parts of north-east China. On the eve of the holiday, a pig and several live chickens from their... [Read more]

HDB rental flats for deserving tenants
THE Housing Board is aware of the concerns of the elderly and the poor. So it is willing to exercise leniency on a case-by-case basis when it comes to rental flats. But on a policy level, it has to be strict... [Read more]

Shanghai ex-party boss to go on trial
SHANGHAI - FORMER Shanghai leader Chen Liangyu will go on trial for his alleged role in a multi million-dollar graft scandal, a senior court official said in comments published yesterday.The deputy chief of Shanghai's Higher People's Court, Ms Liu Hua, did... [Read more]

Israel's scandal-hit police chief quits
ISRAEL'S police commander has resigned after a government commission said he ignored ties between senior officers and underworld figures. The commission said that he had failed to ensure a thorough investigation into the 1999 killing of a suspected crime boss. The... [Read more]

Jakarta deluge
JAKARTA - IT DOESN'T rain, but it pours. Indonesians have been hit by yet another disaster even as they reel from the effects of a triple whammy in the past month. It was only on Thursday that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang... [Read more]

Bangalore crippled by strike over access to river water
BANGALORE - INDIA'S technology hub Bangalore was crippled yesterday by a general strike that shut businesses and emptied streets as activists protested against a court verdict over access to river water. The general strike in the southern state of Karnataka, of... [Read more]

S'pore-Laos ties stronger: PM Lee
SINGAPORE'S ties with Laos have strengthened at all levels over the years, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said at a dinner in honour of Laos Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh. 'People-to-people exchanges and cross- cultural interactions have strengthened. A growing number of... [Read more]

New taste of egg-vertising
TOKYO - WHAT came first: the chicken or the egg? In a new twist to the age-old conundrum, a Japanese firm is betting that - in shopping baskets at least - the chicken or rather chicken noodles will follow the egg... [Read more]

Foreigners to be enlisted in terror fight
A NEW front is being opened in the fight against terror and crime here as the authorities enlist the help of foreigners, working and living among the population, in their security efforts.For a start, the Jurong police division is reaching out... [Read more]