News Today

Care needed with CPF lottery plan
I REFER to the article, 'Workfare: Not an ideological shift, just economics' (ST, Feb 17), which raised the idea of the CPF Board working with Singapore Pools to harness lower-income Singaporeans' tendency to bet in lotteries by devising a scheme to... [Read more]

China's economic boom throws up new challenges
BEIJING - THE Chinese economy has been surpassing growth expectations for years and its 2006 gross domestic product figures even beat the confident predictions made by senior officials.Last year's 10.7 per cent increase in output, which topped Beijing's forecast of 10.5... [Read more]

Shell wins employer of choice prize at top HR awards
DO YOU wish you could work from home instead of trudging into the office or leaving it early to fetch your children from school? These are just the kind of work-life balance initiatives that are in place at Shell Eastern Petroleum,... [Read more]

Companies in brief
ST ENGG WINS $68.5M TAIWAN TRAIN CONTRACTSINGAPORE Technologies Engineering (ST Engg) has won a $68.5 million contract from engineering firm Marubeni to supply communications and other electronic systems for a railway project in Taiwan. The company's electronics arm will design and... [Read more]

S'porean puts his bet on Johor biofuel plant
SINCE August last year, a Singaporean-owned biodiesel plant in Johor has been making 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes of the green fuel a month.In the next six months or so, Vance Bioenergy's plant in Pasir Gudang will treble its output. 'We have... [Read more]

Help for disabled: Call to relax funding rules
A SPECIAL committee wants all disabled persons' families - including those whose incomes may not clear means testing - to get financial help. It also hopes to get the nod for its proposal on giving more bosses access to funds to... [Read more]

Record number of older workers
MORE older people here are on the job in their golden years, although most are doing lower-skilled jobs such as cleaners, machine operators and sales workers.The proportion of workers aged 55 and older were at a 'record high' last year, said... [Read more]

Watford resigned to relegation after loss to Bolton
LONDON - A CONVERSATION between two Watford supporters on the way to Saturday's Premiership match against Bolton said everything about the club's situation.'How do you reckon we'll do in the Championship next season?' one asked.The fact that the match ball was... [Read more]

BA strike may affect flights out of S'pore
THE planned 48-hour strike by British Airways (BA) cabin crew next Tuesday and Wednesday will not affect flights from Singapore to London on those days. However, flights on subsequent days could be affected if the strike takes place. BA passengers who... [Read more]

FairPrice to absorb GST hike for 6 months
SHOPPERS with rice and about 400 other essential items in their baskets at NTUC FairPrice supermarkets will not feel the pinch when the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is raised on July 1. This is because, for six months from that... [Read more]

Were you among the late-night shoppers?
THE year's first late-night shopping session took off yesterday, with four times more retailers joining in to get consumers spending until midnight.A dry run last year by 58 retailers was a success, with retailers reporting sales going up by as much... [Read more]