Kubica replaces Alonso 9:07 PM

LONDON - POLAND'S Robert Kubica will replace Spain's double Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso at Renault next season, the team said in a statement on Wednesday.

No details were given about the length of the contract, although Renault said it was from 2010 onwards.

ST wins 2 top Sias awards 7:07 PM

THE Straits Times clinched two of the top five accolades at the annual Securities Investors Association of Singapore (Sias) business journalism awards.

Correspondent Francis Chan, 34, was named Financial Journalist of the Year at a gala dinner at the Raffles City Convention Centre on Wednesday night, making it the fifth time The Straits Times has won the award in the last six years.

Typhoon pounds Japan 6:42 PM

TOKYO - A POWERFUL typhoon approached Japan's main islands on Wednesday, closing car factories, disrupting flights and threatening heavily populated industrial centres with torrential rain and strong winds.

Typhoon Melor may be the most powerful storm to hit Japan's main islands in more than 10 years, the Meteorological Agency said, prompting media reports recalling a deadly 2004 storm that killed 95 people and brought transport links to a standstill.

Rescue teams leave Padang 6:15 PM

PADANG - RELIEF workers struggled to reach Indonesian quake survivors still without food or shelter a week after the disaster, while foreign rescue teams packed up their high-tech equipment on Wednesday and prepared to pull out.

Aid has been pouring into the shattered West Sumatran city of Padang since the Sept 30 earthquake, but the scale of the disaster, heavy rain and damaged infrastructure have meant it has been slow to reach outlying areas.