A HOUSEWIFE and her mother were sentenced to jail on Tuesday for maid abuse after pleading guilty midway during their trial in a district court.

Loke Phooi Ling, 38, a permanent resident, will begin her eight-month and two-week sentence on April 30 while her mother, Teng Chen Lian, 67, will begin her four-week sentence first.

MORE than 43,000 workers have signed up for a government-sponsored training scheme aimed at saving jobs, in the first three months since its launch in December.

And the Workforce Development Agency (WDA), which anticipates that the demand for certified training courses will grow, plans to double the number of training places available to 220,000 this year.

LONDON - G-20 leaders meeting in London this week will agree new global rules on bankers' pay, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday.

Speaking two days before the crunch summit, Mr Brown lamented the relative lack of regulation of the financial sector in recent years, saying: 'free markets became worshipped as a god, but that god was false.'

WASHINGTON - US HOME prices in the 20 largest cities fell by a record 19 per cent in January from a year ago in a downward spiral with no end in sight, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller survey showed on Tuesday.