News Today

Iran turns missile into satellite launcher
TEHERAN - IRAN has converted its most powerful ballistic missile into a satellite launch vehicle, a move that could herald a new dimension in Teheran's strategic capabilities, according to Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine. A recently assembled 30.5-tonne ballistic missile-turned-space... [Read more]

Spicing up Tamil lessons
ALTHOUGH Tamil is spoken less these days, a committee addressing the issue has ideas to reach out to the young in the community. It also recognises that parents themselves may not be proficient in Tamil and may need help as well.... [Read more]

What the deal is about
YESTERDAY, North Korea committed itself to a two-stage denuclearisation process under an agreement with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. In the first stage - which must be completed within 60 days - Pyongyang will shut down its... [Read more]

Leo Burnett eyes growth with fresh hires, new media
THE Leo Burnett advertising agency here has had its setbacks in recent years, but one of its top global executives has a plan for turning the agency around. Mr Mark Tutssel, chief creative officer of Leo Burnett Worldwide, believes that hiring... [Read more]

Why only some organs removed?
I READ with concern about the recent case of Mr Sim Tee Hua's organs being removed despite his family members' unhappiness. I fully empathise with them. According to the Human Organ Transplant Act (Hota), the corneas, heart, kidneys and liver suitable... [Read more]

Nurses' pay to go up by 3-7 per cent this month
PUBLIC-SECTOR nurses and other health-care professionals will take home fatter pay cheques starting this month. Nurses' salaries will go up by 3 to 7 per cent, while allied health professionals such as medical social workers and physiotherapists will receive increments of... [Read more]

Make perverting history a global crime
I AGREE totally with Mr Boguslaw Marcin Majewski, Ambassador of Poland to Singapore, that it is indeed extremely troubling that historian David Irving should persistently deny the existence of Auschwitz and the Holocaust ('Proof of Auschwitz gassing indisputable'; ST, Jan 30).Having... [Read more]

System to let docs access all patients' e-records
A NEW infrastructure will be set up soon to link all health-care practitioners' IT systems, making it possible for doctors to check their patients' medical records electronically.This will translate to fewer administrative mix-ups, such as mistakes in the prescription of medication,... [Read more]

World Quickly
RUSSIA CONFIRMS BIRD FLU OUTBREAKMOSCOW: Russian health officials confirmed yesterday that a bird flu outbreak near Moscow was caused by the dangerous H5N1 strain that can infect humans.Poultry farms around the capital were under tight control after animal and plant health... [Read more]

Govt to pay market rate for land acquired
IN A significant departure from a decades-old practice, the Government intends to pay the prevailing market rate when it acquires land.This is a shift away from using pre-determined levels, which owners often argued were below market rates and had been a... [Read more]

Buddhists there to help
AN INTER-RELIGIOUS ambience surrounded this year's Thaipusam celebration, held around the Tank Road area on Thursday. As some 9,000 Hindus participated in their yearly walk of faith, close to 200 volunteers from the Singapore Buddhist Lodge acted as road marshals and... [Read more]