News Today

Bryant shines brightest in NBA All-stars show
LAS VEGAS - NOT surprisingly, the first National Basketball Association All-Star Game in Las Vegas featured plenty of flash, but little substance. There were slam dunks galore and no defence to be found, as the Western All-Stars beat their Eastern counterparts... [Read more]

Jakarta 'using sand ban to put pressure on S'pore'
JAKARTA - INDONESIA'S recent ban on land sand exports was a means by which it could apply pressure on Singapore to sign an extradition treaty, said a top Foreign Ministry official here.Mr Primo Alui Joelianto, the ministry's director-general for Asia, the... [Read more]

The New Paper is available today at the usual outlets from 7am.
The New Paper is available today at the usual outlets from 7am.... [Read more]

Selling Singapore: Stories from the EDB trenches
MR KO Kheng Hwa, the managing director of the Economic Development Board (EDB), shares stories from the frontline in the battle for multinational investments: Wooing Shell with tenacity IT TOOK 'generations' of EDB officers to persuade petrochemical giant Shell to invest... [Read more]

4th in a row: Goods vehicle COE at $1
THE certificate of entitlement (COE) for commercial vehicles has remained at $1 for the fourth tender in a row.At the close of yesterday's exercise, the Land Transport Authority received only 506 bids for 679 available COEs for trucks, vans and buses.Motor... [Read more]

Fed officials see no rate cut, citing inflation risks
WASHINGTON - UNITED States Federal Reserve officials, armed with figures showing inflation picking up, made it clear that they are not close to cutting interest rates. Hours after the government reported on Wednesday that consumer prices rose more than forecast last... [Read more]

Deal to end N. Korean nuclear crisis may be at hand
BEIJING - A CAUTIOUSLY optimistic US chief negotiator Christopher Hill said last night that a deal could be close that will see North Korea begin to end its nuclear weapons programme. Negotiators yesterday started going through a draft proposal outlining possible... [Read more]

Baby trafficking case exposes abuse of women from E. Europe
PARIS - AS FRANCE'S biggest baby trafficking case unfolded in court last week, the question was not whether 23 babies had been surreptitiously sold for prices ranging from US$4,500 (S$7,000) to US$7,800 each. The purchasers, most of them couples from France's... [Read more]

Contracts for shipping sector firms steam ahead
TRADING of covered warrants issued on companies in the shipping sector is steaming ahead of that for their counterparts in other sectors.In the past trading week, turnover for shipping sector warrants cruised past that for traditionally more popular sectors such as... [Read more]

Sands' IR reaches a milestone
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan - with Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam Adelson - got to admire a model of Marina Bay Sands yesterday at a ceremony to mark a development milestone in the construction... [Read more]

Blonde bombshell Anna Nicole Smith dies at 39
HOLLYWOOD - ANNA Nicole Smith, the curvaceous blonde whose life played out as an extraordinary tabloid tale - Playboy centrefold, jeans model, bride of an octogenarian oil tycoon, reality-show subject, tragic mother - has died after collapsing at a hotel. She... [Read more]