World

General Motors Co outsold Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp in the United States in the third quarter, data on Monday showed, but analysts and investors are fretting that a darkening economic picture will lead to a drop in car sales. Thus far, a shortage of cars due to supply disruptions, combined with a preference for personal transport, has seen consumers willing to shell out more money, largely protecting profits at automakers and auto dealers who have pulled back on discounts. But analysts now warn demand may lose steam in the coming quarters as rising interest rates discourage consumers from paying more money for cars and trucks in the coming months. "We're cautiously optimistic about moving forward. There's a lot of negative consumer sentiment in the marketplace. So we're obvio...

SINGAPORE: A woman suffering from untreated schizophrenia listened to voices telling her that her eight-year-old daughter was an evil spirit and needed to be killed. She stabbed her daughter to death in front of her younger daughter, who was four at the time. The woman, who is now 36, cannot be named due to a gag order protecting the victim's identity. She pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Sep 20) to one count of murder, but was acquitted of the charge under Section 251 of the Criminal Procedure Code as she was of unsound mind at the time of the offence. The judge ordered that she be kept in safe custody in prison and for the case to be reported to the minister. According to Section 252 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the minister may then order her to be confined in a psychiatric institution,...

SINGAPORE: In order to commit a money exchange scam, a man used his friend's S$25,000 meant for bitcoin investment and roped in other friends to cheat a woman of 400,000 yuan (S$80,700). However, his friends failed in the scam when they tried to escape by bus and the victim caught up with them in a taxi. When the police were conducting their investigations, Lincoln Poh Chong Tee turned off his phone and hid it in a shoe rack outside his home, knowing it contained incriminating evidence. And in a separate incident, he took a knife to confront a man who was having drinks with his girlfriend and was eventually remanded in May this year. For his offences, Poh, 26, was sentenced to a year's jail on Thursday (Sep 15). He pleaded guilty to five charges of conspiring to cheat, obstructing the...

MELBOURNE : Australia have experienced T20 players ready to slot in "seamlessly" in place of captain Aaron Finch if required for the World Cup, paceman Josh Hazlewood said on Wednesday. Under pressure and out of form with the bat, Finch's place in the team is under scrutiny ahead of Australia's World Cup title defence on home soil. Team mates and selector George Bailey have backed Finch to dig himself out of his form slump and lead the team at the global tournament but Hazlewood stopped short of describing the opener's captaincy as essential. Asked how difficult it would be for Australia to have a new captain for the World Cup, Hazlewood said the team had senior players ready to step up. "All teams at the moment really feel like they're quite senior and there's a lot of guys who sort o...

MUMBAI: Demand for home loans is strong in India and is expected to pick up further over the next few months, the head of major housing finance firm Housing Development Finance Corporation said on Monday (Sep 12). "The economy is buoyant, the feel good factor is high, affordability is better so people are comfortable buying houses even if rates are slightly higher", Keki Mistry, chief executive of HDFC, told Reuters. India's central bank has already raised rates three times by a total of 140 basis points in this financial year to tame stubbornly high inflation, which has remained above the central bank's tolerance band for several months. Lenders have passed on the interest rate rises but Mistry said that there are no signs of stress among home buyers and collections on loan dues remain...

Adam Braun's first two entrepreneurial ventures had to do with education. First, he launched Pencils of Promise in 2008, a nonprofit organization that has started more than 500 schools in Ghana, Guatemala, Laos and Nicaragua. In 2017, he launched the education startup MissionU, which WeWork acquired the following year. Braun's next venture, Climate Club, is focused on helping large companies engage their employees in reaching their climate goals. The company, which is emerging from stealth on Wednesday, is opening with Facebook parent company Meta and management consulting company Bain among its first pilot customers. Around a year ago, Braun and his college roommate at Brown, Philip Charm, got together with their 4-year-old children. "As we were watching our young children play, and r...

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge war crimes court gave its final verdict on Thursday (Sep 22), upholding the genocide conviction and life sentence imposed on the regime's last surviving leader. The tribunal was ruling on an appeal by Khieu Samphan, head of state for the murderous communist regime, which wiped out a quarter of the Cambodian population in less than four years in the 1970s. It is the last verdict that will be issued by the tribunal, which has cost more than US$330 million and prosecuted only five Khmer Rouge leaders, two of whom died during proceedings. "The Supreme Court chamber finds no merit in Khieu Samphan's arguments regarding genocide and rejects them," Chief Judge Kong Srim said in the lengthy ruling. The court also upheld the 2018 convictions against ...

I guess so, I was always good at music and art in school. I even learned to crochet at five just by watching my aunt. A lot of my time when I was younger was filled by making gifts such as friendship bands, customised pens using embroidery thread with my friends’ names, farewell gifts for the seniors, and crocheting bags and pencil cases for the new school term. WAS CREATIVITY ENCOURAGED IN YOUR FAMILY? I grew up in a typical Singaporean-Chinese family. I guess growing up with my grandmother in the kampong gave me more freedom to explore and experience things with my hands – I dabbled in everything my grandmother did as she would always give me a set of my own tools and small bit of material or ingredients so I can be quiet sitting next to her while was was making kueh, pounding chilli, ...

SINGAPORE: A man disturbed by the smell of cigarette smoke in a coffee shop asked the culprit to stop smoking, but was soon grievously assaulted by a group of four men. One of the men in the group pleaded guilty to his role in the attack on Thursday (Sep 29). Nicholas Yeo Kexiong, 32, admitted to one count of causing hurt to the victim, where the hurt was not intended to be grievous but turned out to be so. Another charge will be considered in sentencing. The court heard that the 40-year-old victim was at a coffee shop along Kelantan Lane on the night of Aug 15, 2021. He had gone there to meet a friend for drinks to celebrate a birthday. Separately, Yeo was at the coffee shop with three of his drinking buddies: Lee Kee Fatt, 71, as well as Ng Kah Tiong, 56, and Yuen Tuck Wah, 59. Lee ...

:U.S. and global equities staged a partial comeback on Wednesday as the Bank of England said it would step in to the bond market to stem a damaging rise in borrowing costs, an attempt to dampen investors' fears of contagion across the financial system. The BoE said it would temporarily buy long-dated bonds - linked most closely to workers' pensions and home loans - in light of a surge in UK bond yields to their highest level in years. Sterling, which hit record lows against the dollar on Monday, was last up about 1.37 per cent in volatile trading, while gilt prices roared higher, fuelled by the central bank's commitment to postpone a planned sale aimed at reducing the bonds it bought during the depths of the pandemic. European government bonds also got a lift from the surge in gilts. I...