BEIJING - A CHINESE unit of Japan's number three automaker Nissan Motor has announced it will launch a new brand for China to tap the huge demand in the world's largest car market.

Nissan unveils new brand

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<p>A MAN who allegedly posed as a woman on Facebook social networking site to cheat victims into parting with their money was brought to court on Thursday.</p><p>Shawn Goh Eng Hwee, 31, is said to have, together with two teens, cheated Mr Patrick Loh Jin Kun into believing that he needed $480 as a loan to pay rental and induced him to transfer the sum to a POSB account as a loan.</p>

Man charged with cheating

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<p>TOKYO - JAPAN on Thursday raised the prospect of intervention in the currency markets as leaders faced mounting calls to act on the surging yen, which is sitting at 15-year highs against the dollar. </p><p>Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said the government was examining ways that it could sell down the Japanese unit, which poses a threat to the country's key export sector. </p>

Yen intervention prospects raised

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<p> MANILA - PHILIPPINE President Benigno Aquino said on Thursday he will form an elite force based on Britain's Special Air Service (SAS) to handle future hostage incidents, after a bungled rescue left eight Hong Kong tourists dead. </p><p>He said he decided to create the force after seeing local police commandos take almost an hour to assault a tourist bus hijacked by a sacked policeman on Aug 23. </p>

Philippines to form elite force

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<p>THE Finance Ministry has accepted 33 of the 83 suggestions from the public on the draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2010.</p><p>These suggestions were received during the public consultation exercise held from June 28 to July 19 and will be incorporated into the revised Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2010.</p>

MOF accepts 33 tax ideas

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<p>POLICE have arrested three youths in connection with a series of theft from stall cases.</p><p>The trio, aged from 13 to 19 years, are believed to be behind a spate of thefts from stalls at hawker centres at Tanglin Halt, Holland Drive and Ghim Moh Road.</p>

3 arrested for serial thefts

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<p>POPULAR Singaporean singer Stefanie Sun has been appointed the Singapore Tourism Ambassador for Greater China, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) announced on Thursday.</p><p>For the next two years, Ms Sun will make special appearances at STB Greater China's events and headline a series of marketing campaigns and television commercials promoting Singapore as the must-visit tourist destination to the China market. </p>

Stefanie is new face of STB

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<p>SINGAPORE remains the most competitive economy in Asia, and third in the world, according to the latest World Economic Forum's (WEF) competitiveness rankings published on Thursday.</p><p>It came in ahead of Japan and Hong Kong, both of which maintained their sixth and eleventh spots respectively. </p>

Asia's most competitive

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<p> MUMBAI - CAR sales in India jumped 33.2 per cent year on year last month, data from an industry body showed on Thursday, as increasingly affluent consumers flocked to showrooms in Asia's third-largest auto market. </p><p>Vehicle sales, including trucks and motorcycles - seen as a key indicator of a buoyant economy - have been robust, as the economy recovers from the global financial crisis. </p>

India car sales jump 33%

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<p>FRANKFURT - GERMAN inflation slowed slightly in August, official data confirmed on Thursday, though wages could begin to pick up in Europe's biggest economy as it pursues its economic recovery. </p><p>Prices rose by one per cent from the same month a year ago, the national statistics office said, confirming a preliminary estimate released on August 27. </p>

German inflation at 1% in Aug

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<p>MANILA - PHILIPPINE investigators admitted for the first time on Thursday that police may have shot some of the tourists in a bungled operation that left eight Hong Kong residents dead on a bus in Manila. </p><p>Armed with an assault rifle and a pistol, sacked policeman Rolando Mendoza took a busload of tourists hostage on August 23 in a desperate bid to clear himself of extortion charges and get his old job back. </p>

'Friendly fire' suspected

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<p>MANILA - PHILIPPINE medics had to throw away a donated kidney when a local airline refused to fly it, transplant doctors said on Thursday. </p><p>Cebu Pacific Air said it was protecting passengers from possible infection or contamination when it refused to allow the team who harvested the organ to carry the kidney in the cabin on the flight last month. </p>

Airline refused to fly kidney

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<p>SINGAPORE shares were higher at midday on Thursday, with the benchmark Straits Times Index at 3,014.38, up 0.10 per cent, or 2.96 points.</p><p>About 808.2 million shares exchanged hands.</p>

STI higher at midday

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<p> MANILA - PHILIPPINE Airlines' (PAL) cabin staff on Thursday formally advised the government they would go on strike at the end of Oct, saying the move would ground all flights by the loss-making flag carrier. </p><p>The 1,600-member cabin crew union said it had filed a strike notice with the labour ministry, which by law has 30 days to try to find a compromise between the airline and employees to prevent a shut-down. </p>

Cabin crew file strike notice

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<p>SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK - ORACLE Corp has offered its new co-president, former Hewlett-Packard chief Mark Hurd, a hiring package with a bonus of up to US$10 million (S$13.4 million) and options potentially worth tens of millions more.</p><p>Oracle, the world's No. 3 software maker, named Mr Hurd co-president on Monday, a month after he stepped down from HP because of a scandal involving expense reports and a female contractor.</p>

Oracle offers Hurd over $13m

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<p>SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA'S mining-led economy created another 30,900 jobs in August, pushing unemployment down to 5.1 per cent and boosting the likelihood of higher interest rates, figures showed on Thursday. </p><p>The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said the jobless rate fell 0.2 percentage points after a surprise rise in July, bettering analyst forecasts of 5.2 per cent. The buoyant statistics sent share prices 0.9 per cent higher, while the Australian dollar reached a four-month high of 92.18 US cents on expectations the central bank will hike interest rates. </p>

Aussie jobless rate at 5.1%

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<p>SINGAPORE - THE Singaporean dollar rose to a new record high against the greenback on Thursday as investors' appetite for higher yielding currencies continued to increase, analysts said. </p><p>Investors were also drawn by the Asian region's economies, which have bounced back from the global slump much better than counterparts elsewhere, they said. </p>

S'pore dollar hits new high

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<p>KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIAN religious officials said on Thursday they had detained and fined nine members of an Islamic sect for celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holiday two days early. </p><p>The Eid festival, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, has been declared on Friday for most parts of the world including Malaysia, but members of Jamiah Al-Zikri Awwalun were caught already celebrating on Wednesday. </p>

9 held for early Eid celebration

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<p>NEW YORK - SWISS second seed Roger Federer advanced to the US Open semi-finals on Wednesday by defeating Swedish fifth seed Robin Soderling 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in one hour and 56 minutes. </p><p>Federer, a 16-time Grand Slam champion seeking his sixth US Open title and seventh consecutive final, will face Serbian third seed Novak Djokovic on Saturday for a berth in Sunday's championship match. </p>

Federer advances to semis

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<p>BANGKOK - THREE unexploded bombs were found in Bangkok and surrounding suburbs in just a few hours, one of them in front of a school and one in a shopping mall, police said on Thursday. </p><p>The first device was discovered under a footbridge outside a school in central Bangkok on Wednesday morning, Major General Prawut Thavornsiri, the national police spokesman, told AFP. </p>

3 bombs found in Bangkok

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