Japan, EU to launch free trade talks: report

TOKYO: Japan and the European Union are to hold a summit this month to formally launch negotiations on a huge free trade deal, a report said Sunday.EU President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso will visit Tokyo in the last week of March to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Nikkei business daily said.The report said the two sides would reach a final accord...

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Malaysia threatens 'drastic' steps in Borneo siege

LAHAD DATU, Malaysia: Malaysia threatened Saturday to take "drastic action" against intruding followers of a self-proclaimed Filipino sultan after a tense standoff erupted into a shootout that killed 14 people.Twelve followers of the little-known sultan of Sulu and two Malaysian security personnel were killed in Friday's firefight, police said, as the more than two-week-old siege in a...

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US sailors jailed for Okinawa rape: report

TOKYO: Two US sailors who raped a Japanese woman in Okinawa last October, sparking island-wide anger, were on Friday jailed for nine and 10 years, a report said.The Naha District Court in Okinawa said Christopher Browning, 24, should go to prison for 10 years while Skyler Dozierwalker, 23, should serve nine, Jiji Press reported.Browning and Dozierwalker, who were not stationed in Okinawa,...

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Resale prices of private homes rebound in January

SINGAPORE: Prices of resale private homes rebounded in January, rising 0.3 per cent, reversing the previous month's 0.2 per cent decline, according to the Singapore Residential Price Index flash estimates published by the Institute of Real Estate Studies at the National University of Singapore.The increase in January was led by price growth in the small unit segment, defined as homes below...

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Japan robot suit gets global safety certificate

TOKYO: A robot suit that can help the elderly or disabled get around was given its global safety certificate in Japan on Wednesday, paving the way for its worldwide rollout.The Hybrid Assistive Limb, or HAL, is a power-assisted pair of legs developed by Japanese robot maker Cyberdyne, which has also developed similar robot arms.A quality assurance body issued the certificate based on a...

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KFC cuts suppliers after China chicken scare

SHANGHAI: Fast food giant KFC has cut more than 1,000 farms from its supplier network in China to ensure food safety after a scandal over tainted chicken hurt sales in the key market last year.The issue came to light when China's commercial hub of Shanghai and the northern province of Shanxi said in December that they were investigating KFC suppliers over claims of high levels of antibiotics...

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4 ex-SMRT bus drivers involved in illegal strike plead guilty

  SINGAPORE: Four former SMRT bus drivers pleaded guilty in court on Monday and were convicted for inciting and participating in last November's illegal bus strike.He Jun Ling, 32, Gao Yue Qiang, 32, Liu Xiangying, 33, and Wang Xian Jie, 39, had earlier claimed trial with trial dates set for the 4 to 8 March.But last Friday, the four men's lawyers said their clients' decision to...

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Lift-door stickers to drive home fire hazard message

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) has unveiled lift-door stickers with fire safety messages as part of a campaign to generate greater public awareness on the dangers of discarding items at common areas such as corridors, lift lobbies, staircases and void decks. One such sticker was unveiled by Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs, Mr Masagos Zulkifli,...

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Basketball: Lakers cap emotional week with win over Trail Blazers

LOS ANGELES: Kobe Bryant scored 29 of his 40 points in the second half as the Los Angeles Lakers capped an emotional week with a much-needed 111-107 NBA victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.Bryant added seven rebounds and two steals for the Lakers, who have won seven of their last 10 games and stand 3-1/2 games behind the Houston Rockets for the eighth and final playoff spot in the...

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Locals fill most jobs at new plant on Jurong Island

SINGAPORE: Tuas Power's Tembusu multi-utilities complex on Jurong Island has generated 150 jobs ahead of its official opening next week.One hundred positions have been filled and the plant's looking for Singaporeans to fill 50 more vacancies. Nine in 10 positions are currently held by locals.The jobs are technical in nature, with Tuas Power looking out for graduates from polytechnics and...

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Australia's Fairfax up on asset sales; revenues plunge

SYDNEY: Ailing Australian media company Fairfax on Thursday unveiled a quadrupling of first-half profit to A$386.3 million (US$395.5 million) after offloading assets to guard against plunging revenues.Fairfax, publisher of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald broadsheets and owner of radio and digital assets, said net profit for the half-year to December 31 was almost four times that of the...

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India's workers strike to protest "anti-labour" policies

NEW DELHI: Millions of India's workers walked off their jobs on Wednesday in a two-day nationwide strike called by trade unions to protest at the "anti-labour" policies of the embattled government.Financial services and transport were hit by the strike called by 11 major workers' groups to protest at a series of pro-market economic reforms announced by the government last year, as well...

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Local furniture makers urged to adopt green practices

SINGAPORE: More furniture manufacturers in Singapore will be encouraged to adopt green practices with the aim of being awarded green certifications.This is part of a three-year plan by the Singapore Furniture Industries Council (SFIC) and Singapore Environment Council (SEC) with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).To date, 11 SFIC members have been awarded green certificates...

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Pakistan protesters demand end to killing of Shiites

QUETTA, Pakistan: Thousands of women refused to bury victims of a bloody bombing and a strike shut down Pakistan's biggest city Karachi as protesters across the country demanded protection for Shiite Muslims.Up to 4,000 women began their sit-in in Quetta Sunday evening, a day after a bomb in the city killed 81 members of the minority community including nine women and two girls aged seven...

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Briton survived Outback by drinking contact lens fluid

SYDNEY: A British backpacker who endured three days missing in Australia's punishing Outback survived by drinking his contact lens fluid and urine, his mother said Sunday.Samuel Woodhead, 18, was found Friday on the sprawling remote property Upshot Station, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the far-flung central Queensland town of Longreach, from where he had set off on Tuesday.He became...

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Anti-North Korea leaflets launched on Kim's birthday

IMJINGAK, South Korea: North Korean defectors in the South launched 200,000 anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the tense inter-Korean border on Saturday, the birth anniversary of the North's late leader Kim Jong-Il.The defectors used gas-filled balloons to float the leaflets along with $1 currency notes across the western border town of Imjingak, despite high tensions owing to the North's...

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S. Korea leader says only regime fall will change North

SEOUL: North Korea can never be made to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak said Friday, arguing that only regime collapse could remove the threat from Pyongyang.As the UN Security Council continues to debate how to punish the North for its latest nuclear test, the outgoing president suggested the best way forward was to try to foment unrest among...

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Ex-CNB chief found not guilty of corruption

SINGAPORE: Former Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) chief Ng Boon Gay is not guilty of corruption in a high-profile sex-for-contracts trial.The verdict was handed down by District Judge Siva Shanmugam on Thursday afternoon.The judge said there was no corrupt element involved, and found Cecilia Sue's credibility to be successfully impeached.He said her explanations on inconsistencies in her...

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Cambodia reports sixth bird flu death this year

PHNOM PENH: A three-year-old Cambodian girl has died from bird flu, bringing the country's toll from the deadly virus to six so far this year, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday.The girl, from the southern province of Kampot, died in a children's hospital in the capital Phnom Penh, the WHO said in a joint statement with the Cambodian health ministry.Tests confirmed she had...

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Obama rebukes North Korea over test

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama said Tuesday that North Korea's "provocative" nuclear test did not make it more secure and called for "swift" and "credible" international action in response.Obama also vowed in a written statement that Washington would remain vigilant in the face of the underground detonation by the Stalinist state and steadfast in its defense commitments to its allies...

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