News Today

Comeback kid Griselda wins top Sports School award
FOR someone used to cutting cleanly and smoothly through the water, the past year has been a roller-coaster ride for Griselda Khng. The national Optimist sailor ended 2005 with a South-east Asia Games gold medal after a tense deliberation by the... [Read more]

Tata wins Corus with $19b bid
LONDON - INDIA'S Tata Steel is set to become the world's fifth-biggest steelmaker after winning a battle for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group with a &pound6.2 billion (S$18.8 billion) offer.The battle pushed Corus' share price to seven-year highs and pitted 70-year-old Tata... [Read more]

SMEs with profits around $300,000 benefit most from tax cuts
WHEN all the business tax permutations are totted up, one specific group scores best - smaller firms with profits around $300,000 - although all firms benefit to various degrees. Cuts and exemptions listed in the Budget will deliver small and medium-sized... [Read more]

Poor better off, Middle-incomers puzzled
For some, it was the Great Singapore Puzzle.When the Budget was announced on Thursday, it left quite a few people scratching their heads. A few savings here, a few goodies there. Different permutations, based on age, income and housing type. But... [Read more]

Lawmakers want Jakarta to get tough with S'pore
JAKARTA - SOME Indonesian lawmakers want Jakarta to put more pressure on Singapore to sign an extradition treaty, saying the ban on sand exports was not enough.'We need to take much tougher measures against them. I don't know, but the government... [Read more]

Biomedical debate: No point pushing it further
TO ADD my two cents' worth to the great biomedical debate between National Neuroscience Institute head Lee Wei Ling and outgoing A*Star chairman Philip Yeo, I note that Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong welcomed the debate as 'healthy' provided 'it is... [Read more]

Just fix it
Just fix it WHEN Changi Airport staff found a pothole in the runway one day in the 1980s, then permanent secretary of the Ministry of Communications Sim Kee Boon, who had taken on the mammoth task of building Changi Airport, went... [Read more]

Williams v Sharapova: Who wants title more will win it
MELBOURNE - SERENA Williams is in the Australian Open final, saving the toughest opponent for last - Maria Sharapova. Before today's final, she had already forced every tennis commentator on the planet to eat his words about how she was a... [Read more]

Malaysia recalls 300 retired police officers
KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA has recalled more than 300 retired police officers back to duty as the country faces a shortage of experienced law enforcement officials.The 337 retired officers - to be hired on a contract basis - will be tapped... [Read more]

Rescue at hand
PHOTO: REUTERS A helicopter arriving at the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation building to evacuate five people trapped by the flames on the 11th floor. Nobody was hurt as few were working on Sunday morning, but officials say the fire may 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]