News Today

Picture-perfect smile
PHOTO: AP Visitors at a Beijing temple picking their favourite photo from a wall lined with smiling faces. Prizes will be awarded to the person in the winning picture and the photographer.... [Read more]

Drawing the crowds at SMRT station
Auspicious Chinese couplets and paintings were given away free to SMRT passengers and shoppers at the Raffles Xchange mini-mall yesterday by artists from the Life Art Society (LAS). In the past three years, the society's giveaways have been held at SMRT... [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]

Pirated movie vendors go mobile to avoid crackdown
KUALA LUMPUR - AT A suburban hawker centre in Petaling Jaya, the fare on offer range from delicious bowls of laksa and pork noodles to the latest Jackie Chan or Ben Stiller blockbuster. A young man with spiky hair walks up... [Read more]

Envoys told to rebut Thaksin
BANGKOK - THE Thai government has asked its diplomats to counter the comments made by deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in interviews with international news organisations.In a number of interviews with newspapers, magazines and TV channels - the latest being an... [Read more]

An IRB satellite event for S'pore?
SINGAPORE is aiming to host an International Rugby Board (IRB) satellite tournament. It could take place later this year, and the Singapore Rugby Union (SRU) is hoping that the move can boost its bid to bring back the prestigious Rugby Sevens... [Read more]

Jakarta defends move to halt sharing of bird flu samples
JAKARTA - INDONESIA yesterday defended its decision to stop sharing bird flu samples with the World Health Organisation, saying it did not want the agency passing them to drug companies to develop vaccines the country could not afford. But Health Minister... [Read more]

CAO parent, BP delay asset injection
A PROPOSED injection of operating assets into jet fuel supplier China Aviation Oil (CAO) has been delayed by another six to nine months.China-based, Singapore-listed CAO said yesterday that its parent company China National Aviation Fuel Holding (CNAF) and oil giant BP... [Read more]

Pioneer residents want wet market
THREE supermarkets serve the 50,000 or so residents of Pioneer constituency in Jurong.But residents in the young estate, half of whom are between 20 and 45 years old, have a craving that harks back to the old days: for a wet... [Read more]

The campaign begins for Hillary and Obama
IT WAS inevitable, but it came sooner than anyone predicted. After Mr Barack Obama - the one-term senator from Illinois - more or less declared his candidature for the US presidential elections, two-term New York senator Hillary Clinton threw her hat... [Read more]

Letter bomb explodes in central London
LONDON - A LETTER bomb exploded in central London yesterday, injuring one woman and causing panic. The blast occurred at the London headquarters of the company that administers the British capital's traffic congestion toll, Capita. It is less than 180m from... [Read more]