A SINGAPOREAN couple accused of distributing anti-Islamic comic books admitted to police that they sent out the publications and apologised profusely, a court heard yesterday.

The pair, who were attending the Berean Christian Church at the time of the alleged offences, said in statements to investigators earlier this year that they only wanted to spread Christianity.

FORMER MP Ho See Beng, a founder of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), died last night at the age of 90. Mr Ho died in hospital after being stricken by pneumonia that led to the failure of his organs.

He was a PAP MP for Bras Basah and Khe Bong for more than 20 years, from 1963 to 1984. His youngest daughter is West Coast GRC MP Ho Geok Choo, who said he served his country passionately and treated his friends generously.

NEW YORK - MR JOE Gilmartin, a doorman at a luxury apartment building in Manhattan, fears the worst this year about the holiday tips he traditionally gets from the affluent tenants he serves.

'I've heard they're cutting back. It's a fear, and it's a concern,' said Mr Gilmartin, one of millions of US workers who rely on gratuities for income. In the crisis gripping the economy, they worry those tips, from a dollar at a diner to large year-end sums, are growing fewer and smaller.

A FINANCIAL storm may be sweeping across the globe, but Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong does not see it as a precursor to a next great depression as happened in the 1930s.

'I think that global depression is not on the cards. Governments have learnt the lesson of the 1930s and they will not repeat the same mistakes,' he said in comments to members of the Foreign Correspondents' Association at a lunch talk today.