The Straits Times

May 28, 2009 Thursday

Updated

Straits Times Headlines

Parliament to get more diverse voices

SMU student is Singapore's first H1N1 flu victim

Success of the Chinese model

View Points

Circle Line trains start rolling today

Malaysia to hold Mas Selamat under ISA for two years

From touchdown to isolation within hours

Those in close contact quarantined

WHO to relook alert system

Panel to prepare for long-term growth

Temasek urged to help local talents and firms in global arena

5 economic strategies

Win or lose, more voice for opposition

GRCs to shrink, but they will stay

Nominated MPs to be a permanent feature

A system in sync with aspirations of S'poreans

'Intolerance' can bring a nation down

In Brief

N. Korea pulls out of 1953 truce

Why S'pore won't let up on training

Consider top-up rule when selling below valuation

STI rises to highest level in eight months

What it should have been

Breaking News

Time Warner to spin off AOL

S'pore economy diversified **

Bankruptcy deal secured

WASHINGTON - FALLEN US auto giant General Motors pulled back from the brink on Thursday, winning government and bondholder support for a new restructuring plan while Chrysler waited for a court to decide its future.

GM, kept afloat so far with US$19 billion (S$28 billion) in US taxpayer money, had been facing a deadline on Monday to come up with an agreed reorganisation and looked to be in serious trouble when bondholders balked earlier this week.

S'pore economy diversified

SINGAPORE'S economy is evenly spread - between small and large, foreign and local - and benefits greatly from the mix, said Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang on Thursday.

With the aid of a slew of charts, Mr Lim told Parliament that growth has been driven by a combination of all segments - local and foreign small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and foreign multi-nationals and large homegrown enterprises.

3 more H1N1 cases

SINGAPORE on Thursday confirmed three more cases of Influenza A (H1N1). The patients are being treated at the Communicable Disease Centre at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH).

Their symptoms are relatively mild and all of them are in stable condition, said a statement from Ministry of Health on Thursday night.

Engage, not isolate

THE Myanmar government's continued disregard of Asean's concerns over its treatment of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi prompted two MPs on Thursday to call for it to be suspended from the regional grouping.

Mr Charles Chong (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC) and Mr Inderjit Singh (Ang Mo Kio GRC) argued that having Myanmar as a member would dent the credibility of Asean in the eyes of the world.

Temasek made big gains

FINANCE Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam defended Temasek Holdings' overall track record on Thursday, saying that it made 'large investment gains' during a six-year cycle from 2003, which saw both boom and bust times.

Mr Tharman told Parliament that Temasek's portfolio grew $56 billion from March 2003 to November 2008, even after taking its recent sharp decline into account, averaging a return of just over 15 per cent a year during that period. He disclosed this when responding to questions on Temasek's sale of its Bank of America shares from Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Inderjit Singh and Non-Constituency MP Sylvia Lim.