WASHINGTON - THE US economic bleeding extended in February with 651,000 jobs lost and the unemployment rate surging to 8.1 per cent, according to data on Friday highlighting an ever-deepening recession.

The number of job losses was in line with most forecasts but underscored the dire state of the economy as companies axe jobs to cope with an intensifying slump.

POLICE have arrested a woman after the body of a baby was found in a riser at a block in Jurong West on Friday.

The body of the infant, said to be less than one year old, was found in a recyling bag in the riser outside a five-room flat on the 12th floor of Block 678D Jurong West Street 64.

A BARREN landscape, littered with rubble. Misty hills and pale silhouettes of buildings provide a backdrop.

Amid the vast wasteland shuffles a lone human figure, barely a speck in the distance. This is not a nuclear-razed war-zone but the pre-flood ruins of old Kai county in China, one of many cities now under water due to China's massive Three Gorges Dam project.

SINGAPORE has topped a list of more than 30 countries in e-government initiatives.

A global study of 34 nations saw the government here ranked highest on optimising productivity of ministries and departments through the use of infocomm technology. It was also singled out for 'big progress' on its government online portals.