News Today

To revive the kampong spirit, HDB has to put its ear to the ground and scrutinise its own heart
Good neighbourliness used to be a hallmark of flat-living. In my childhood home, a block of two-room flats, almost every unit housed three generations, with families numbering six or more. Everybody knew everybody.It was a tight squeeze physically, but the openness,... [Read more]

Bangkok airport repair work causes delays
BANGKOK - SOME incoming flights to Bangkok's international airport were delayed for eight hours as parts of its cracked runways were closed for repair work.Four of the flights were diverted from Bangkok to U-tapao, a military airfield south-east of the capital,... [Read more]

Ma criticises textbook revisions
TAIPEI - TAIWAN'S opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou accused the government of attempting to glorify Japan's 50-year colonisation of the island by removing the term 'occupation' in revised school textbooks, a newspaper reported yesterday.In recently updated textbooks, Japan's rule of Taiwan between... [Read more]

Third party liability: Deadline looms for Durai
FORMER National Kidney Foundation (NKF) chief executive officer T.T. Durai has until tomorrow to decide if he wants to contest the move by two former NKF directors to name him as a third party in the charity's lawsuit.If the former directors,... [Read more]

Sign of Mars life?
New evidence has surfaced that water may be present on Mars. This image from Nasa spacecraft Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows alternating layers of dark- and light-toned rock in Becquerel Crater on the planet. Within those deposits are a series of linear... [Read more]

Cancer patients get hongbao
NEARLY 300 cancer patients received some early festive cheer when a cai shen, or God of Fortune, wished them prosperity and gave them hongbao on Thursday. Each patient who is on the Singapore Cancer Society's welfare subsidy programme was given a... [Read more]

Huge storm forces flight cancellations in US, Canada
WASHINGTON - HEAVY snow and freezing rain in the United States and Canada wreaked havoc yesterday, forcing hundreds of flight cancellations at major airports.A massive weather system which started in the US south-west swept through the Midwest and regained strength off... [Read more]

Wear chastity belts to prevent rape, says cleric
KUALA LUMPUR - WOMEN should wear chastity belts to prevent rape, incest and other sex crimes, a prominent Islamic cleric in northern Malaysia has been quoted as saying.Datuk Abu Hassan Din Al-Hafiz, speaking in the northern state of Terengganu on Thursday,... [Read more]

Mahathir out of hospital
FORMER Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was discharged from hospital yesterday after being treated overnight for flu, his aide said. Tun Dr Mahathir, 81, said he was feeling better, according to his aide Sufi Yusoff. Details of his medical treatment were... [Read more]

Eight prison school students ace O levels
NELSON (not his real name), 32, did not think he would ever return to a classroom.He was not good at English and failed Mathematics so often that he decided to drop out of school in Secondary 1 and take on odd... [Read more]

How agreement was clinched: Secret overtures and lesson from a teacup
ON A Friday night in late December, the tortuous three-year diplomatic effort to end North Korea's nuclear weapons programme finally appeared to be dead. Two months earlier, North Korea had conducted its first nuclear weapons test, and five days of talks... [Read more]