The Straits Times

February 19, 2009 Thursday

Updated

Straits Times Headlines

Changes made to polling districts

Indonesia critical to US foreign policy: Clinton

You're a hero, Mr Lou

Inside

Japan fails to focus on crisis

View Points

Texas billionaire accused of US$8 billion fraud

COEs rebound ahead of supply cuts

A leg up for those who need it

Private patients can use more Medisave for bills

Mums get $100,000 in housing, school grants

Public Assistance cash handout increased

First-time flat buyers get more aid

Help paying bills; more in Workfare payout

A leg up for students

Needy students can get up to $2,060 yearly in extra aid

Free uniforms in addition to free textbooks and exam fee subsidy

$250 more in MOE bursary helps needy students with expenses

Readers offer to pick up hero's $90 tab

Citizen celebrated for canal rescue **

627,000 new jobless claims

WASHINGTON - THE number of unemployed workers receiving unemployment benefits jumped to an all-time high near 5 million earlier this month, while new jobless claims remain well above 600,000. Both figures were worse than expected and new projections from the Federal Reserve show unemployment rising for the rest of this year.

The Labor Department reported on Thursday that the number of people receiving regular unemployment benefits edged up to 4.99 million, marking the fourth straight week those receiving benefits have been at a record level.

Look long-term: PM Lee

SINGAPORE'S foreign banks should continue to look long-term and stay with their clients through this financial storm, urged Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday evening.

And while their presence poses potential risks to the financial system, Singapore must remain open to the world, he added. Singapore will starve if it walls itself in, he warned.

Genting to invest more

GENTING International, which is building the Resorts World at Sentosa (RWS), is to invest another $590 million in the integrated resort which is due to open in early 2010.

The extra funds to be pumped in by the company, which is part of Malaysian gaming conglomerate Genting Berhad, will bring its total investment in RWS to $6.59 billion, up from $6 billion, it said in a statement to the Singapore Exchange on Thursday.

UBS existence at stake

GENEVA - UBS has agreed to pay US authorities US$780 million (S$1.19 billion) and hand over customer details to settle charges of tax fraud in the United States that threatened the very existence of Switzerland's biggest bank.

The settlement rocked Switzerland's business establishment on Thursday after the Swiss regulator revealed that the case had not only jeopardised UBS but also the country's fabled financial stability.

S'pore is most wired nation

SINGAPORE is now the most wired nation on earth, with the household broadband penetration rate hitting 99.9 per cent last December.

The figure, given by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), puts Singapore ahead of countries traditionally thought of as powerhouses in the wired world: South Korea (92 per cent), Hong Kong (83.8 per cent) and Taiwan (76.8 per cent), going by figures from research firm Frost & Sullivan's 2007 study.