News Headlines

Parliament Shorts
INCOME CEILING: HDB TO BE FLEXIBLE INCOME ceilings are still needed for purchases of subsidised Housing Board flats, but HDB will be flexible if families are in difficulty, said Minister of State (National Development) Grace Fu yesterday.Income ceilings help ensure that... [Read more]

3 homes burgled in one night
THREE homes on the same street in Pasir Ris were burgled on a single night while the occupants were all asleep, and over $14,000 worth of valuables were stolen. All three homes, just a few doors from one another in Pasir... [Read more]

$50m overhaul of Changi's runways
CHANGI Airport's 'project runway' has started, with work going on round the clock and clockwork scheduling needed to keep the planes flying. When Terminal 3 opens next year, the airport's two runways will be ready for 'heavier' traffic - in the... [Read more]

BY DAY: A private school; BY NIGHT: Supplier of vice girls
BY DAY, it appeared to be a private school. At night, it was supplying women for vice-related activities. This was how private school group Ritz Everton Academy was believed to have been operating, until it shut down suddenly in the middle... [Read more]

Companies in brief
SGX IN TIE-UP WITH ABU DHABI EXCHANGESINGAPORE Exchange (SGX) has tied up with its counterpart in Abu Dhabi to explore cross-border trading and clearing.The SGX announced yesterday that it signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi Securities Market that will pave the... [Read more]

'Bubble forming' in China's stock market
DUBAI - CHINA'S stock market is developing into a 'bubble', and investors are in danger of behaving irrationally, a leading Chinese legislator has said.In the strongest public expression of concern to come from a senior state figure, Mr Cheng Siwei told... [Read more]

New Taiwan charter 'at odds with US policy'
WASHINGTON - THE incoming No.2 US diplomat, Mr John Negroponte, said a proposed new Constitution for Taiwan would likely be at 'cross purposes' with Washington's policy. When asked at a Senate hearing about his opinion on Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's push... [Read more]

Beijing slams Taipei over changes to textbooks
BEIJING - CHINA lashed out at Taiwan yesterday for dropping phrases from high-school history textbooks that link the two as one country, and said the move was another step towards promoting the island's independence.The changes included replacing terms such as 'the... [Read more]

CitySpring listing to raise up to $315m
CITYSPRING Infrastructure Trust, Singapore's biggest initial public offering (IPO) so far this year, could raise up to $315 million. The Temasek-backed entity launched its IPO yesterday with a projected tax-free distribution yield of between 6.7 per cent and 7.7 per cent,... [Read more]

Lee Teng-hui denies he sought formal split from China
IN TAIPEI - FORMER Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui has caused a stir by saying he had never advocated formal independence for the island. Mr Lee, dubbed the 'godfather of Taiwan independence', said in an interview with Taiwan's Next Magazine published yesterday... [Read more]

Almost all quake-hit cables fixed
BEIJING - CHINA'Sbiggest telecommunications companies have restored nearly all phone and Internet capacity that was affected by last month's earthquake near Taiwan, state media reported yesterday.China Telecom and China Netcom said major cables handling fibre-optic traffic, mostly between China and North... [Read more]