SINGAPORE – Singapore’s Covid-19 vaccination programme will enter its next phase on Feb 22, when seniors across the island start getting their jabs, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Friday (Feb 12). This comes after a month-long pilot, where those aged 70 and above in Ang Mo Kio and Tanjong Pagar – towns with […]
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil will extend pandemic emergency cash transfers to the poor and vulnerable, Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said on Thursday, but added that the payments must come with compensating cost-cutting measures to avoid ruin to the public finances.FILE PHOTO: Brazil’s Economy Minister Paulo Guedes reacts before a ceremony at the Planalto Palace in […]
SINGAPORE – Having been separated from her family here for almost a year, the reunion dinner on Thursday (Feb 11) was extra special for housewife Cynthia Tan Kloth, who has been living in Germany with her husband and two children. After months of uncertainty over travel curbs and lockdowns, the 39-year-old Singaporean flew here on […]
SINGAPORE – A trip to the doctor’s office in 1990 when she was 12 years old, to have her blood tested for her Singapore identification card, ended up as a defining moment for Mrs Germaine Littlewood. Recalling the incident, Mrs Littlewood, now 42, said the results showed she is B+. But everyone else in her […]
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The dollar slipped on Thursday in quiet trading, weighed down by slightly weaker-than-expected U.S. jobless claims data that followed tepid inflation numbers and a dovish message from the Federal Reserve the previous session.FILE PHOTO: U.S. one dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration taken February 8, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationCurrency moves however […]
NORWICH, Conn. (Reuters) – American millennials with budget constraints are breaking out of their pandemic coops to find affordable dream homes in far-flung places.Slideshow ( 5 images )For funeral home director Kate Reinhart, from Utah, that dream is an octagonal Victorian that recalls the macabre Addams Family mansion seen in cartoons, films and a TV […]
KUALA LUMPUR (REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – Malaysia will allow gyms, motor race tracks, and golf courses to reopen beginning on Friday (Feb 12), subject to virus protocols such as capacity limits, said Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob in a televised briefing on Thursday. Non-contact sporting activities such as tennis singles […]
HONG KONG (REUTERS) – Hong Kong’s Chinese New Year fairs, usually an opportunity to sell creative merchandise critical of the government alongside festive foods and decorations, are subdued this year amid coronavirus restrictions and a sweeping national security law. Last year in January, fairs sold a variety of items carrying pro-democracy slogans popularised by mass […]
SINGAPORE – The day before she was to have a reunion dinner with her teenage children, the mother of three was found at a Tampines void deck on Wednesday (Feb 10) covered in blood with slash wounds on her neck. Ms Iris Ting Su Yin, 42, later died after being taken to the hospital. Please […]
SINGAPORE – Budget measures to combat Covid-19 last year helped cushion the recession, saved or created some 155,000 jobs over 2020 and 2021, and shaved the rise in unemployment rate by 1.7 percentage points. A total of $27.4 billion in grants – 18 times the amount given out in 2019 – was used to shore […]