<p>ONE of Singapore's fastest growing advertising platforms will get a $30 million government boost to help it catch up with other markets.<p>Singapore's digital advertising sector will receive help - in the form of high-tech tools which will help marketers identify the right customers and measure just how effective their campaigns are - to enable Singapore firms to reach out to more customers, both locally and overseas.

$30m for digital ad market

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_576263.html

<p>ONE in three people aged from 15 to 29 in Singapore shop with the click of a computer mouse at least once a month, a poll has found. </p><p>This makes them the most prolific online shoppers in South-east Asia, ahead of their counterparts in the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam, where one in five people in that age bracket buy products or services from online merchants at least once a month. </p>

1 in 3 youths shop online

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_576350.html

<p>TIRED of forking out $225,000 every year to remove handbillls pasted haphazardly around bus and train stations, the Land Transport Authority is taking measures to get rid of the unsightly mess.</p><p>Nine of 75 noticeboards near bus stops and train stations have become paid boards, with notices pasted behind glass. This is to prevent users from gluing their flyers on top of others, removing other people's ads, or pasting multiple flyers for the same product or service.</p>

Noticeboard revamp

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_576349.html

<p>MANILA - PHILIPPINE investigators on Wednesday inspected the bullet-riddled bus where eight Hong Kong tourists died in a hostage crisis, in a bid to establish who was to blame for the killings.<p>The inquiry board members, a Hong Kong government representative, and the driver of the ill-fated bus arrived at a police warehouse where the vehicle was stored after last month's fiasco.

Bullet-riddled bus inspected

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_576296.html

<p>IT WAS love at first sight for Christopher Boey.</p><p>The Secondary 1 student at Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) visited Singapore in Jan 2006 and loved it so much he got his father to move the family over from Myanmar.</p>

Foreigners fitting into S'pore schools

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_576295.html

<p>MANILA - A SERVANT of the politically powerful clan accused in last year's massacre of 57 people told a Philippine court on Wednesday that the family members plotted the killings of rivals and journalists over dinner six days before the ambush. </p><p>The witness, Lakmudin Saliao, took the stand on the first day of trial nearly 10 months after the Nov 23 massacre in southern Maguindanao province exposed the shocking violence of Philippine politics. Among the dead were 30 media workers travelling in an election convoy - making it the deadliest single attack on reporters in the world. </p>

Servant: Warlord ordered killing

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<p>SENIOR Minister Goh Chok Tong clarified on Wednesday remarks he made suggesting the Government would not renew permanent resident status for some PRs who decline its offer of citizenship.<p>The comment, made at a dialogue on Monday, was a 'general observation to illustrate the point that the Government would be managing the inflow of PRs and would encourage some of those who are already here to become Singapore citizens,' said a statement from his press secretary Ho Tong Yen.

SM clarifies on PR renewal

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_576289.html

<p>PARIS - A GAY football organisation has asked the French federation to punish an amateur club which refused to grant one of his players a licence because he is gay. </p><p>The Paris Foot Gay said on Wednesday it asked the federation's national ethics council to impose sanctions on FC Chooz 'to help the football world to realise that homophobia is as bad as racism and anti-Semitism.'</p>

Gay player deprived of licence

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Sport/Story/STIStory_576285.html

<p>MUMBAI - AN INDIAN court has upheld a tax department demand for Vodafone Group Plc to pay 120 billion rupees (S$3.46 billion) in taxes for its 2007 acquisition of one of India's largest mobile phone companies. </p><p>A Vodafone executive said on Wednesday the company will 'think seriously' about appealing the ruling to India's Supreme Court. </p>

Vodafone ordered to pay taxes

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Money/Story/STIStory_576282.html

<p>PATIENTS may soon have an avenue to seek redress if their physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists are unprofessional.<p>Under a new law that the Health Ministry plans to introduce, allied health professionals - physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists, for a start - will be regulated like doctors, dentists and pharmacists.

Bill for health professionals

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_576283.html

<p>MANILA - PHILIPPINE reporters may have interfered with a police operation when reporting on a bus hostage crisis that killed eight Hong Kong residents, a television journalist told an official inquiry on Wednesday.<p>Reporter Erwin Tulfo, in telephone contact with a sacked Manila policeman shortly before the gunman shot his hostages, acknowledged the behaviour of the journalists who covered the crisis raised ethical questions.

'Ratings above lives' option

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_576277.html

<p>MANILA - THE Philippines is in serious danger of missing many of the UN development goals, including halving poverty by 2015, the government acknowledged on Wednesday. </p><p>There is only a 'medium' chance poverty will be halved, a 'low' chance that fewer mothers will die while giving birth, while AIDS is still spreading, Economic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga told a public forum. </p>

Philippines may miss UN goals

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_576276.html

<p><b> TOKYO</b><br>Japanese share prices closed down 2.18 per cent on Wednesday as the yen rose to a fresh 15-year-high against the dollar, sparking further fears for exporters' profits, brokers said.</p><p>The headline Nikkei-225 index fell 201.40 points to 9,024.60. The Topix index of all first action shares of the Tokyo Stock Exchange dropped 1.67 per cent or 13.93 points to 820.99.</p>

Asian stocks close lower

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<p>SINGAPORE shares closed lower on Wednesday, with the benchmark Straits Times Index at 3,011.42, down 0.81 per cent, or 24.67 points.</p><p>About 1.67 billion shares exchanged hands.</p>

STI closes 0.81% lower

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Money/Story/STIStory_576181.html

<p>THE Media Development Authority (MDA) will be getting a new Chief Executive.</p><p>He is Mr Aubeck Kam, currently Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Manpower, who will take over from MDA Chief Exective Christopher Chia, who is moving on to the private sector when his tenure ends.</p>

New head for MDA

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<p> BANGKOK - PANICKED teachers in Thailand's restive south stayed home from school on Wednesday after two teachers were killed in broad daylight amid threats from suspected Muslim insurgents that 20 would die. </p><p>The Narathiwat Teachers Federation called for more than 300 schools across the province to close on Wednesday for several days, but it was not immediately clear how many opted to shut. One district in the province said five out of 157 schools would close for the rest of the week. </p>

Teachers killed in Thailand

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_576266.html

<p>A YOUNG Briton who committed a series of offences while on probation was jailed for nine months on Wednesday.<p>Grant Callum Pearson, 17, had pleaded guilty last month to one count of mischief by smashing the side window of a car and four charges each of theft and criminal trespass in mostly the eastern part of Singapore.

British teen jailed 9 months

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_576264.html

<p>COE PREMIUMS ended appreciably firmer across the board at the latest tender on Wednesday, with a couple of categories rebounding to their second highest levels this year.<p>COE for cars up to 1,600cc closed at $33,089, up from $29,000. The premium for cars above 1,600cc shot to $44,129, up from $42,810.

COEs rebound strongly

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_576262.html

<p>LIM Koon Yaw, 23, was facing a minimum of a year's jail and caning for snatching a bag of lingerie from a woman in March. Instead, the fast-food worker pleaded guilty to theft on Wednesday and was fined $500.</p><p>A psychiatric report revealed that he had a fetish for women's undergarments.</p>

Lingerie thief fined $500

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_576258.html

<p>HEAVY rainfall on Wednesday morning again caused flooding in Singapore, this time striking the Central Business District and low-lying areas in Little India.<p>Floodwaters rose to 300 mm along the flood-prone Veerasamy Road, and 150 mm in Rowell Road and Hindu Road, a PUB official told the straitstimes.com on Wednesday afternoon.

Floods hit CBD, Little India

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