Electric dream to be a reality next year
SINGAPORE - Electric cars will finally power their way to Singapore roads next year, in not one but two separate - and quite contrasting - experiments. On one side: Team Mitsubishi and the Energy Market Authority (EMA). This national electric vehicle test-bed...
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Wolf on journalism ...
Some observers have blamed the global financial crisis on the failure of the Western press to understand the complexity of the financial sector. What's your take? The newspapers and television organisations that cover financial matters have a tiny staff, compared with the staff of major financial institutions themselves. Take the Financial Times for example,...
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GOVERNMENT interventions around the world may have staved off what was initially touted as the second Great Depression but they have created a dire side effect: Painful lessons have not been learnt as the global economy resumes business as usual. As Financial...
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EU's unlikely President
by BLOOMBERG
BRUSSELS - Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy didn't want his current job - and he didn't want the one he just got, either. After less than a year as Belgian leader, Mr Van Rompuy (picture), 62, was named yesterday the European Union's first President,...
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Inflation to rise: economists
Inflation for 2010 has been revised upwards to between 2.5 and 3.5 per cent, from the previous 1 to 2 per cent, due to the impending revision in the annual values of Housing and Development Board flats in January next year. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said its underlying inflation forecast, which excludes housing and private road transport,...
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Recession is over
SINGAPORE - With growth in the key economies gaining a firmer footing, policymakers in Singapore are expecting the economy here to grow modestly next year - even as they warn that the outlook for the second half of 2010 remains unclear. This assessment came as the Singapore economy grew for the second straight quarter - rising 14.2 per cent in the third...
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Smart grid may hold the answer
SINGAPORE - Consumers could soon be using energy in a more efficient way. They could be able to use household appliances that switch themselves off during peak periods when electricity prices are higher. They could even be able to buy electricity at competitive prices in an open retail market. And they could have even more choices when renewable energy...
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Bukit Timah hit by floods
SINGAPORE - It was too late when restaurant manager Kesab Limbu got to the Sixth Avenue Centre's basement car park: Within minutes, floodwaters gushing through small ventilation sills turned the area into a ''swimming pool''. ''The water rose quickly to my...
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A firm with the wind in its sales
SINGAPORE - The ventilation units of large buildings and shopping malls could one day be the site of wind farms in Singapore if a local start-up has its way. Cygnus Power wants to install wind turbines - not the common windmill-like structures, but aerodynamic...
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Hilda Foo is the first female to win this school award
SINGAPORE - She chose to visit a Cambodian village and build a house there as part of her school's ''Challenge Week''. Hilda Foo also cooked a meal for the villagers and rode on a motorcycle - the first time she had sat on one. With four other students. Hilda...
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It'll be a busy Thanksgiving for Obama
WASHINGTON - United States President Barack Obama will have scant time to rest up from his eight-day Asia trip. Tomorrow, two days after his return to Washington, the Senate plans a make-or-break vote on his hard-fought plan to overhaul the nation's health care system. Mr Obama also confronts a difficult choice on strategy and troop levels in Afghanistan,...
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South Korea presents Obama with taekwondo 'master' belt
South Korea yesterday presented US President Barack Obama with a taekwondo outfit including an honorary black belt as a memento of his stay, officials said. President Lee Myung Bak personally chose the gift in recognition of Mr Obama's past interest in the...
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South Korea offers talks on stalled US free trade pact
SEOUL - South Korea yesterday said it is ready for talks to ease American car-makers' concerns about a stalled free trade agreement, as United States President Barack Obama cautioned that several issues must still be settled. In a bid to push the process forward, South Korean President Lee Myung Bak for the first time said he is open to more discussion to...
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Satisfaction not guaranteed ... yet
FOR years, poor service standards in Singapore have been a bugbear for consumers here. And of late, grouses have largely centred around the growing numbers of foreign service staff here who have trouble communicating in English. The hunt for solutions to the...
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Victim reveals more of ordeal to female officer
by Ansley Ng ansley@mediacorp.com.sg
SINGAPORE - The victim of an alleged gang rape had told her boyfriend and police officers attending to her that she had been put in a van by several men and molested. But the 17-year-old student later revealed privately to a female police officer details about the alleged rape that took place on Boxing Day last year. The girl was still wearing the clothes...
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