News Today

Govt agency helps 22,000 find new jobs
ABOUT 22,000 people found jobs last year with help from the Workforce Development Agency (WDA), a government body that develops training programmes.Most were older and low-skilled workers. Some of them snagged better-paying jobs through the Job Re-creation Programme, which reinvents low-end... [Read more]

Thigh strain rules Vieira out of Valencia match
MILAN - INTER Milan midfielder Patrick Vieira will not play in today's Champions League first-leg match against Valencia after aggravating a thigh strain in training.The French international, who missed Inter's 1-0 win over Cagliari at the weekend because of the injury,... [Read more]

Qantas raises full-year earnings forecast again
SYDNEY - QANTAS Airways, target of an agreed A$11 billion (S$13.1 billion) buyout, increased its profit forecast a second time in three months on rising ticket sales and lower fuel prices.It expects earnings to rise as much as 40 per cent... [Read more]

Harvard updates core curriculum
BOSTON - HARVARD University has announced its biggest curriculum overhaul in three decades, focusing on sensitive religious and cultural issues, the sciences and overcoming American 'parochialism'. The curriculum at the oldest US university has been criticised as focusing too narrowly on... [Read more]

Iraqi general takes charge of Baghdad crackdown
BAGHDAD - IRAQ is preparing for a new security crackdown, with a new general set to lead the country's forces taking charge. The US military has confirmed the appointment of Lieutenant-General Abboud Gambar, a Shi'ite in his early 60s, to lead... [Read more]

Cold War foes meet as defence chiefs
WHEN US Defence Secretary Robert Gates shook hands in Seville with his Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov, it was a Cold War reunion of sorts.As a Soviet analyst, Mr Gates rose to the top of the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold... [Read more]

$89,000 village for the poor in wife's name
FILIPINO stock trader Rudy Abad's story has been one of tragedy and triumph, riches and rags, love lost and hope discovered. These are imbued in the Maria Rose Abad Village, a settlement on Manila's outskirts which the 60-year-old helped build in... [Read more]

Left high and wet
PHOTO: EDWIN KOO For the past week, home for the 22-member family of Mr Hassan Talib has been a big tent by the village road in Batu Pahat, Johor. About 40,300 flood victims were still at 93 relief centres in the... [Read more]

Maid levy cut by $30 a month for all
GOOD news on two fronts for those with foreign maids in yesterday's Budget.First, the monthly $295 levy payable to the Government will be cut for all households by $30, to $265, starting from July.And second, households which employ a maid to... [Read more]

Want a place with history? Lease Old Admiralty House
FOR the first time, a national monument has been put up for public tender by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA). The Old Admiralty House in Sembawang, built in 1939 by the famous British architect Edwin Lutyens, is available to tenants looking... [Read more]

Today's Briefs
Pakistan orders probe into suicide bombing near Shi'ite centrePESHAWAR (PAKISTAN) - PAKISTAN yesterday ordered a federal investigation into a suspected suicide bombing that killed 15 people, including a police chief and other officers, and beefed up security in this north-western city.... [Read more]