SINGAPORE - LESS than three weeks before 173 people became trapped on the world's biggest observation wheel, dozens were stuck in another incident, the attraction said on Friday.

The Singapore Flyer gave AFP details of three previous stoppages at the wheel before the most serious incident on December 23 which trapped most of the 173 passengers for more than six hours.

BEIJING - A GROUP of scared parents whose babies suffered from melamine-tainted milk called on Friday for urgent research into the long-term effects of the chemical, as five others said they were detained by police here.

'The issue of adding melamine into food is a new problem, no one has scientific information or evidence,' Jiang Yalin, the 33-year-old mother of a baby who drunk milk made from powder tainted with melamine, said in Beijing.

SINGAPORE on Friday cut its economic outlook for 2009 after reporting a worse-than-expected fourth quarter performance as manufacturing contracted and services sector slowed amid the global economic crisis.

The government said it now expects gross domestic product this year to come in between a decline of 2 per cent and growth of 1 per cent, lower than the previous forecast of -1 per cent to +2 per cent made in November.

MOBILEONE (M1) chief executive officer, Mr Neil Montefiore, will be stepping down effective Feb 1.

In an announcement on Friday evening, Singapore's smallest mobile operator by subscriber base said that Mr Montefiore is quitting to 'pursue other personal interests'. An engineer by training with over 30 years experience in the telecommunications, 56-year-old Mr Montefiore joined M1 in April 1996 and has been M1's public face since.