News Today

Hammers lose Upson, and game
LONDON - CAN things get any worse for West Ham?Bad enough they lost 0-1 to Aston Villa in the Premiership after a dreadful display on Saturday.Worse, they also saw &pound6million (S$18 million) new signing Matthew Upson go off with an injured... [Read more]

Beating the blues
The cold snap this week in north-eastern US has not dampened a West Virginian resident's sense of fun. Mr Rich DeMary. 43, has poured jugs of water mixed with food colouring over the icicles along this road, just to brighten the... [Read more]

Fighting in the streets of Beirut
BEIRUT once again descended into chaos this week as Hizbollah supporters littered the roads with burning tyres in a bid to topple the US-backed government. The country was paralysed as the militants set up a vast network of roadblocks, sparking violent... [Read more]

What's left of coalition troops
Albania: 120 troops (non-combat) Armenia: 46 Australia: 550* Azerbaijan: 150 Bosnia-herzegovina: 36 Britain: 7,100 (to withdraw 1,600 troops by spring) Bulgaria: 155 Czech Republic: 99 Denmark: 460 (to be withdrawn by August) El Salvador: 380 Estonia: 35 Georgia: 900* Kazakhstan: 27... [Read more]

STI slips again on weak electronics data
SINGAPORE shares took another hit yesterday, after Thursday's pummelling, as economic data revealed continued softness in the electronics sector. The nation's December manufacturing output numbers released yesterday fell slightly more than expected, weighed down by the electronics sector, which dipped 8... [Read more]

Seoul pardons tycoons 'to boost economy'
SEOUL - SOUTH Korea yesterday announced pardons for more than 430 convicted business leaders and politicians in an attempt to reinvigorate the economy 10 years after the Asian financial crisis. The list agreed at a Cabinet meeting includes Park Yong Sung,... [Read more]

Year of Golden Pig set to bring home the bacon for investors
ACCORDING to astrologers, this Year of the Pig will be especially auspicious. For investors, it will, they say, really bring home the bacon. That is because it is not just any Pig Year, but a Golden Pig Year - the first... [Read more]

Why insist on just one method of solving a mathematical problem when others achieve the same result?
I thank Mr Lim Boon Tong for addressing the bugbear of many parents who are anxious to track the progress of their kids in primary schools. By insisting on the so-called model-drawing methods of solving a maths problem, the schools have... [Read more]

Austria's Olympian minister dies
AUSTRIA'S first female interior minister Liese Prokop, a former Olympic silver medallist, has died of a ruptured blood vessel. She was 65.Ms Prokop, who was appointed in 2004 to oversee Austria's police and overall security, died on Sunday night as she... [Read more]

'Yellow dust' set to sweep S. Korea
SEOUL - CHINA'S neighbours are bracing themselves for the onslaught of massive sandstorms which hit the Korean peninsula and Japan each spring.Seoul yesterday issued its first nationwide 'yellow dust' alert of the year, urging people to stay indoors as much as... [Read more]

Iranian bombs smuggled into Iraq, says coalition
BAGHDAD - UNITED States-led coalition forces in Iraq presented yesterday what officials said was 'a growing body' of evidence of Iranian weapons being used to kill coalition soldiers.A senior defence official from the Multi-National Force told a briefing that 170 coalition... [Read more]