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General insurers turn to Govt as workplace injury claims riseA SPATE of costly lawsuits by construction workers seeking bumper payouts has prompted general insurers to seek government action. General insurers have asked the Ministry of Manpower to increase the benefit limits... [Read more]

Platini's new Uefa boss by four votes
DUESSELDORF (GERMANY) - MICHEL Platini was yesterday named Uefa's new president, ending Lennart Johansson's 17-year reign in European football's top job by just four votes. Johansson, 77, looked totally stunned as he realised that delegates had rejected him in favour of... [Read more]

Qantas urges shareholders to accept takeover bid
SYDNEY - A CONSORTIUM led by Macquarie Bank came closer to clinching an US$8.7 billion (S$13.3 billion) takeover of Australia's Qantas Airways yesterday, after the airline released an independent report saying the offer was fair.The report said the offer price of... [Read more]

Scouting out residents in case of emergencies
BEHIND the robust turnout at Sembawang's Emergency Preparedness Day yesterday were people like volunteer coordinator Rafiah Yan and her colleagues. The grassroots volunteers' efforts helped draw about 100 residents from HDB blocks in Madam Rafiah's neighbourhood to witness the annual event... [Read more]

Put Asia's foreign reserves to better use: ADB
TOKYO - ASIA'S huge foreign reserves can and should be used more productively for the region's infrastructure development, a senior official of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said yesterday. A portion of the region's roughly US$3 trillion (S$4.6 trillion) in reserves... [Read more]

Trouble ahead in the property market?
THE property market is starting to give off that scent of money once again.With prices shooting up at the luxury end of the market, talk that a small number of people have made paper gains worth millions of dollars is now... [Read more]

'Greening' of barren mountainside gets brush-off from villagers
SHANGHAI - VILLAGERS in a south-western county are scratching their heads over the local government's decision to paint a barren mountainside green. Workers began spraying Laoshou mountain in Fumin county, Yunnan province, last August. They told the people of Lihua village... [Read more]

Ghosts and lollipops for 'chair-ity'
GHOULS and gingerbread men helped raise $7,500 for charity. They were featured among the creations of 150 youths from 10 schools for the 100 Chairs project to raise funds for the Singapore Children's Society. Three Nanyang Technological University mass communication students... [Read more]

Evacuees short of food and clean clothes
JAKARTA - AS OTHER women take care of their babies and toddlers, Madam Maya nonchalantly wipes water off the feathers of her two chickens. 'I don't want them to get the flu,' she says. Her birds as well as her two... [Read more]

Comedian not joking about Senate race
COMEDIAN Al Franken, known for his lacerating satire of the American right, discarded his customary wisecracks as he announced soberly that he would run for the US Senate. In a video posted on his website on Wednesday, there were no gags... [Read more]

Tiger Air plans to enter domestic market Down Under
SYDNEY - SINGAPORE budget airline Tiger Airways announced yesterday that it is planning to enter the Australian domestic market by year-end.Its chief executive Tony Davis said the airline had filed applications with Australian regulators and that the response from officials was... [Read more]