News Today

Foreign investors wary despite asset growth
LONDON - FOREIGN investors are looking at Japan with a mixture of craving and consternation. Those with Japanese assets are seeing them forge ahead as the economy shows signs of real recovery, earning returns that had been promised for so long... [Read more]

Alan Leong poised to be first challenger for top HK job
HONG KONG - PRO-DEMOCRACY lawmaker Alan Leong has garnered enough support to launch a bid to challenge China-backed Chief Executive Donald Tsang, an official said yesterday.The source said Mr Leong had been promised enough nominations for his bid for the March... [Read more]

Companies in brief
PACIFIC HEALTHCARE IN $32M TIE-UPMAINBOARD-LISTED health-care provider Pacific Healthcare Holdings has inked a $32 million joint venture deal with Kuwait Finance House to build new medical centres in Asia.Pacific Healthcare will take a 40 per cent stake in the venture. Kuwait... [Read more]

Committee members have no hidden agenda when serving community
I couldn't agree more with Ms Ooi Hui Mei 'RCs glad to work with voluntary groups' (ST, Jan 29) that grassroots leaders do not expect medals nor do they hanker after so-called 'privileges'.As a former secretary of the Pasir Panjang Garden... [Read more]

Tighter laws on handling bomb-making chemicals
TERRORISTS are increasingly using certain industrial chemicals such as ammonium nitrate to make explosives. In view of the security risk, Parliament passed a new law yesterday that requires businesses or individuals dealing in and handling such chemicals to get a licence... [Read more]

'Healthy' way to gauge economic growth
LONDON - BLOOD pressure may be a better indicator of a country's economic health than gross domestic product (GDP), a new study suggests. In what has been suggested as a new barometer of success, a survey among European countries has found... [Read more]

Family political tradition
ESTRADAS Mrs Luisa 'Loi' Estrada is the wife of former president Joseph Estrada, who is under house arrest and awaiting the verdict in his marathon plunder trial, which ended last year. After her husband's ouster in 2001, Mrs Estrada - a... [Read more]

Real slump to another loss
MADRID - REAL Madrid's Spanish Primera Liga horror run continued on Saturday. The 0-1 loss at Villarreal, their first to the El Madrigal-based team, was their third defeat in five games.Fabio Capello's new-look Real - without Ronaldo, David Beckham and Antonio... [Read more]

Case File
WOMAN JAILED FOR THEFTA JOBLESS woman was jailed for 15 months yesterday for two offences - snatching a gold bracelet from a 70-year-old woman in Chinatown and disorderly behaviour.Cheng Chan Lian, 39, admitted wrenching the $350 bracelet from Madam Tan Moei... [Read more]

Hicks joins Gillett in bid for Liverpool
LONDON - THE takeover saga of Liverpool has taken another dramatic twist, after it emerged that George Gillett Jr has joined forces with fellow American sports tycoon Tom Hicks to take control of the club. Hicks, the owner of the Texas... [Read more]

Japan uses cute toons as military mascots
TOKYO - PRINCE Pickles, a perky cartoon character with saucer-round eyes, big dimples and tiny boot-clad feet, poses in front of tanks, rappels from helicopters and shakes hands with smiling Iraqis. The cutesy icon hardly calls to mind the Japanese military... [Read more]