The Straits Times

May 8, 2009 Friday

Updated

Straits Times Headlines

Mas Selamat captured

Singapore role in arrest

Mas Selamat's rearrest a lesson in patience and persistence

View Points

Living life on the run

Stress over for 19 top US banks

Gas blasts rock Marina Bay area

Tycoon's second marriage valid

Bolt from the blue

Perak lawmakers come to blows over Speaker's seat

Three more tested for new strain of flu virus

Mexico goes back to business

Asian health officials meet to map response to flu threat

More young people falling victim to the disease

Breaking News

Having kids is fun, not a duty

Sherpa presumed dead

Many Pakistanis flee fighting

Rapped for 'cruel' detention

Asia pledges common fight

Chen continues hunger strike

Japanese boy in Chicago has flu

Killer admits 2 more murders

Protest over tainted milk deaths

Coalition govt to rule Nepal?

HK lifts hotel quarantine **

S'poreans express relief

NEWS of the recapture of Mas Selamat was met with a sense of relief, especially as he was caught just as he was said to be planning to act against Singapore.

'I was so proud when I read that the Malaysian authorities caught him with help from Singapore intelligence. We may have made a mistake when he got away, but I think we've more than made up for it with this arrest', said Mr Mirza Khan, 37, who runs his own IT and logistics business.

2nd suspicious envelope

FOR a second time, an envelope containing a suspicious substance was sent to a party involved in the Aware saga.

The envelope was delivered to the Church of Our Saviour in Margaret Drive just over a week ago.

Staff members who opened the envelope found light brown granules inside and immediately called the police, said a church spokesman.

US jobless hits 8.9%

WASHINGTON - THE US unemployment rate rose to 8.9 per cent in April with 539,000 jobs lost, government data showed on Friday, in a report not as bad as feared by private analysts for the recession-stricken economy.

The jobless rate hit its highest level since September 1983 but the pace of job losses slowed appreciably, offering another possible sign of an easing of the severe economic slump.

HK lifts hotel quarantine

HONG KONG - MORE than 280 guests and staff forced to spend a week quarantined in their Hong Kong hotel over fears of swine flu were released on Friday, an AFP reporter witnessed.

They had been sealed inside the Metropark, in the Chinese city's bustling Wanchai nightlife district, since last Friday after it emerged that a Mexican who tested positive for the A(H1N1) virus had stayed there.

Swam across Johor straits

WANTED terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari swam across the Straits of Johor using an 'improvised flotation device' in his dash to freedom 'soon after' his escape from the Whitley Detention Centre on Feb 27 last year.

These details were disclosed by Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kang Seng at a press conference on Friday.