There is need to look at factors holding corporate women back: minister

SINGAPORE: Law and Foreign Minister K Shanmugam said there is a need to look at the factors that are holding women back from doing well in the corporate sector to see what can be done.Mr Shanmugam was speaking to Channel NewsAsia on Saturday after a closed-door women's dialogue in his constituency Nee Soon GRC, in the lead-up to International Women's Day on 8 March.He said while the labour...

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British PM under pressure after election rout

EASTLEIGH, United Kingdom: British Prime Minister David Cameron was under pressure on Friday after his Conservatives were beaten into third place in a key election by his scandal-hit coalition partners and a eurosceptic party.Cameron admitted it was a "disappointing" night for his party after the Liberal Democrats held the parliamentary seat of Eastleigh in southern England in a contest...

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Govt taking brave step to achieve quality growth, inclusive society: Dr Yaacob

SINGAPORE: Communications and Information Minister and Minister-in-Charge of Muslim Affairs Dr Yaacob Ibrahim has described Budget 2013 as a brave step taken by the government to achieve quality growth and an inclusive society.Dr Yaacob made the statement during the first Budget Forum to be conducted in Malay. The forum will be aired on MediaCorp TV channel Suria from 9.30pm to 10.30pm...

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China overtakes Japan on IT spending: German trade body

BERLIN: China has overtaken Japan in terms of its share of global IT spending, German IT industry organisation BITKOM said on Wednesday, ahead of the CeBIT, the world's biggest high-tech trade fair.Global IT spending is poised to rise by 5.1 per cent to 2.7 trillion euros (US$3.5 trillion), said BITKOM in a new survey, with India (+13.9 per cent), Brazil (+9.6 per cent) and China (+8.9...

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Fatah-linked militants claim Gaza rocket after inmate death

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza militants from Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades fired a rocket at Israel on Tuesday as a "preliminary response" after one of its members died in an Israeli jail.It was the first time a Gaza rocket had struck southern Israel in more than three months, and stoked fears that the mass protests in the West Bank over the fate of prisoners held in Israeli...

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Nokia launches cheaper Windows-based phones

BARCELONA: Nokia, once the leader of the mobile phone world, unveiled Monday two new Windows Phone-based Lumia smartphones aimed at the cheaper end of the market.The Finnish group revealed the Nokia Lumia 720 and Nokia Lumia 520 on the opening day of the world's biggest mobile fair, the Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, Spain."The momentum behind Nokia is gathering pace," said Nokia...

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German horsemeat scandal traced to Poland

BERLIN: Horsemeat found in beef products withdrawn from German shelves has been traced to a supplier in Poland, news weekly Spiegel reported on Sunday, citing European officials.Spiegel said that beef products with traces of horse found in goulash sold by low-cost retailer Aldi were produced by German firm Dreistern Konserven, which in turn bought its meat via a dealer from Mipol, a Polish-based...

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Hockey: Five-a-side format to make debut in S'pore

SINGAPORE: A new format of hockey introduced by the International Hockey Federation is set to make its international debut in Singapore.The Boys U-16 Asia Cup competition, which will take place in April, will be the first official hockey tournament to use the five-a-side format.Since October, 15 boys from the Singapore team have been training at the Sengkang Hockey stadium and they are...

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Eurozone facing recession right through 2013: EU

BRUSSELS: The eurozone faces another full year of recession in 2013 with unemployment likely to surge above the 20-million mark, and French and Spanish state spending badly overshooting targets, the EU said on Friday.Economic output across the 17-state currency area is set to shrink by 0.3 percent this year after a 0.6-percent contraction last year, the European Commission said.That means...

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Man who drowned in NUS pool unlikely to survive despite resuscitation

SINGAPORE: A man who drowned in a pool at the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2007, would likely not have survived despite resuscitaton efforts, according to a cardiologist during a court hearing on Thursday.40-year-old Roland Yeo, who was an IT manager with NUS, drowned after suffering a sudden heart attack in the university's pool on June 6, 2007. His wife is seeking S$1 million...

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Tunisia president holds crisis talks over new PM

TUNIS: President Moncef Marzouki was holding urgent talks on Wednesday with political leaders in a bid to steer Tunisia out of a weeks-long crisis exacerbated by the resignation of Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali.Marzouki was meeting in the morning with leader of the Islamist ruling Ennahda party, Rached Ghannouchi, and later with Maya Jribi of the opposition Republican party, his office...

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S'pore's fiscal surplus for FY2012 expected to surpass govt's estimates: economists

SINGAPORE: Despite booking a slower GDP growth of 1.2 percent last year, economists expect Singapore's fiscal surplus to surprise on the upside for FY 2012.The projections, which range from S$1.6 billion to nearly S$5 billion, surpass the government's estimates of a S$1.27 billion surplus for the year.The record number of new homes sold last year despite additional cooling measures and...

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India's first monorail in Mumbai to open by August

MUMBAI: India's first monorail will be opened to the public in the next six months in Mumbai. Built at a cost of half a billion US dollars, it will be the world's second longest monorail which aims to improve the city's rapid transport systems.India is undergoing an infrastructure building boom.The government recently approved a budget of one trillion US dollars on infrastructure development...

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Three dead in Thai south bombings: officials

PATTANI, Thailand: A series of blasts shook a town in the restive Thai south leaving three dead and 17 wounded, officials said Sunday, days after a major attack on a military base in the unrest-hit region.Three bombs have exploded in the provincial town of Pattani since late Saturday, while police said four more devices had been defused, in the latest attacks to rock the Thai south, where...

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Spike in dengue cases in first months of 2013

SINGAPORE: Dengue cases have spiked in the first couple of months this year.In the first week of January, there were 100 cases. This number climbed to more than 300 cases last week.Within Punggol South, there have been more than 100 cases reported in seven clusters.To remind residents in the area to do their part in preventing dengue, Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources...

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66-year-old man arrested for alleged outrage of modesty

SINGAPORE: Police have arrested a 66-year-old male suspect for a case of outrage of modesty.Police were notified of the case on Friday evening when an 11-year-old victim reported that he was kissed and touched inappropriately by an unknown man in the vicinity of Yishun Street 11. Following the report, officers from Ang Mo Kio Police Division conducted extensive follow-up and managed to...

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Athletics: Pistorius charged with murder

PRETORIA - South Africa's Olympic sprint star Oscar "Blade Runner" Pistorius has been charged with the Valentine's Day murder of his model girlfriend, police confirmed Thursday ahead of his expected court appearance."I can confirm that a suspect has been charged, he has been charged with murder," said Lieutenant-Colonel Katlego Mogale. Officials said there was no other suspect in the case. !--...

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EU ministers to meet on horsemeat crisis

BRUSSELS: European Union farm ministers hold crisis talks in Brussels on Wednesday to agree a response to a scandal over mislabelled frozen meat products which is spreading across Europe.The snap talks come a day after British police searching for the source of horsemeat found in kebabs and burgers raided two meat plants, the first such operation in the row, and France became the second...

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North Korea threatens "stronger" action after nuke test

SEOUL: North Korea said its nuclear test on Tuesday was only a "first" step and warned of stronger action if it was faced with tougher sanctions as a result."The latest nuclear test was only the first action, with which we exercised as much self-restraint as possible," the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the country's official news agency."If the US further complicates...

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US economy picks up, China might slow: OECD indicator

PARIS: Economic activity in the United States is rising, in the eurozone it is steadying, but in China and India the growth trend is slowing, leading indicators from the OECD showed on Monday.The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said that its index of leading indicators suggested that economic growth in the United States was "firming".Activity in Britain was also firming...

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