The Straits Times

May 5, 2009 Tuesday

Updated

Straits Times Headlines

Asian stocks surge as fresh funds flow in

Don't be complacent, says WHO

Inside

Mr Science is here, where's Mr Democracy?

View Points

Woman earned $2.5m but declared just $48,000

SM Goh in hospital with chicken pox

China defends tough actions

Embassy unhappy that Mexico singled out

Home quarantine for 3 back from Mexico

SMU student in Mexico decides to stay put

Temperature-taking at govt offices

Hawker centres, markets get a scrub

No thermometer = $5 fine at poly

Checks at SAF camps

Rolling up sleeves to feed the needy **

US to recover this year

WASHINGTON - THE US economy will begin to turn up later this year provided the financial sector continues to mend, although unemployment will remain high for a while, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday.

In testimony prepared for delivery to a congressional committee, Mr Bernanke sounded more confident that a recovery was at hand than he had in recent weeks.

Luxe goods racket busted

POLICE on Monday busted a counterfeit sports and luxury products syndicate, seizing more than $360,000 worth of counterfeit goods in the process.

In the island-wide operation conducted on Monday, police arrested one male and three females. Aged between 27 and 51-years-old, the four are suspected of being involved in the sale and distribution of counterfeit sports and luxury products.

5 more quarantined

FIVE more people were issued the Home Quarantine Order (HQO) on Tuesday, bringing the total number of HQOs given out to date, to eight.

Six HQOs were issued to Singaporeans, while two were issued to foreign residents.

Electronics output rises

SINGAPORE'S beleaguered manufacturing sector may be finally turning the corner, if a leading indicator of production activity is anything to go by.

Electronics output expanded last month for the first time since September last year, as new local and overseas orders came in, according to the latest Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) released on Tuesday.

Pork is safe: UN agency

ROME - THE risk that pork meat could carry the new H1N1 influenza virus is 'totally negligible', the United Nations food agency said on Tuesday, reiterating that pork and pork products were safe to eat.

Up to 20 countries worldwide have banned imports of pork and other meat in response to the outbreak of the new flu virus, according to documents from the World Health Organisation.