Some Singaporeans questioned the need to have foreign workers here, arguing that Singapore could survive without them.

THE Health Ministry (MOH) is investigating two clusters of malaria transmission on Jurong Island and in the Sungei Kadut/Mandai area.

A total of 14 people, all but one of whom are foreign workers, fell ill last month and were found to have malaria. One full-time national serviceman was also among the clusters. Twelve of them have been discharged as of last Saturday.

SINGAPORE'S low-wage workers received more than $1.1 billion in government aid in the last three years, a boost that helped narrow the income gap last year for the first time in a decade.

As a result, at least 60,000 of them were no longer in the bottom 20 per cent of wage earners making $1,200 or less a month.

TOKYO - CHINA and Japan on Sunday vowed to jointly promote world economic recovery during a meeting of top ministers and senior officials in Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said.

'On the global economic and financial crisis, both countries agreed to implement what was agreed at the London summit swiftly and in a solid manner in order to realise the global economic recovery as soon as possible,' he said.