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SINGAPORE: Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam said on Friday (Sep 2) that Singapore’s policy of having the death penalty for drug trafficking is one that is in the interest of Singaporeans. Mr Shanmugam was responding to a question about how Singapore balances conflicting viewpoints, domestically and internationally, on the issue at a dialogue session with students from the Nanyang Technological University. “My starting point (is) what is my task as a minister? Do we say we have tough punishment because we want to be tough? Is it because there’s some glory in being tough? None of that,” the minister said. “From something as mundane as building a road to naming a building to having policies – whether it’s on aviation, healthcare, Budget, to what kind of penalties we have for litte...

Let's get you up to speed with the day's stories. From next Monday (Aug 29), masks will be optional in most places in Singapore. Masks will still have to be worn on public transport modes such as the MRT, LRT and public buses. But they will not be required at airports, naturally ventilated bus interchanges or in retail areas. Masks will also be optional on taxis, school buses, private bus services and other private transport modes. Flag carrier Singapore Airlines says masks will not be required on its flights unless travelling to or from destinations that require it. The Land Transport Authority says taxi and private-hire drivers as well as passengers are encouraged to continue wearing masks. Here's a detailed look at what you need to know about going mask-free indoors. Separately, n...

A Chinese military helicopter flies past Pingtan island, one of mainland China's closest points to Taiwan on August 4, 2022. China's largest-ever military exercises encircling Taiwan follow a visit to the self-ruled island by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Hector Retamal | AFP | Getty Images China launched unprecedented live-fire military drills in six areas that ring Taiwan on Thursday, a day after a visit by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the self-ruled island that Beijing regards as its sovereign territory. Soon after the scheduled start at 0400 GMT, China's state broadcaster CCTV said the drills had begun and would end at 0400 GMT on Sunday. They would include live firing on the waters and in the airspace surrounding Taiwan, it said. Taiwan officials have said...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong will shorten the COVID-19 hotel quarantine period for all arrivals to three days from seven, taking another step to gradually unwind stringent pandemic rules that have isolated the Asian financial hub. The measures will be effective from Friday, the city's leader, John Lee, told a news conference on Monday (Aug 8). Arrivals will need to self-monitor for a further four days, during which they will be forbidden to enter premises such as restaurants and bars. "We need to balance between people's livelihood and the competitiveness of Hong Kong to give the community maximum momentum and economic vitality," Lee said. People in quarantine will be issued a red code on a government-mandated app. This will change to a yellow code once they leave quarantine, signifying they m...

HONG KONG: The dollar held onto recent gains against the euro and sterling on Friday (Aug 26) ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's widely-anticipated speech, which traders hope will offer clues on the US central bank's tightening plans. The euro was at US$0.9966 in early Asian trade, having failed in several attempts this week to break back above parity against the dollar. It fell below that psychologically important level on Monday. Sterling was down 0.17 per cent at US$1.182. Britain's energy regulator later in the day will announce an eye-watering jump in a cap on energy prices, further boosting inflation in an already struggling British economy. Fuel price increases are passed on to British consumers through a price cap, calculated every three months. This left the dollar ...

The United States beefed up its effort to cut off the flow of advanced technology to China by instructing Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices to stop sending their flagship artificial intelligence chips there. While the news shocked the chip sector by the time markets closed on Thursday (Sep 1), sending the Philadelphia semiconductor index down 1.9 per cent and Nvidia and AMD down 7.6 per cent and 3 per cent respectively, the letters from the US officials appeared to target a narrow but critical part of China's computing industry. The regulations appear to focus on chips called GPUs with the most powerful computing capabilities, a critical but niche market with only two meaningful players, Nvidia and AMD. Their only potential rival - Intel Corp - is trying to break into the market but...

OTTAWA : Crude oil sank with Treasury yields and the dollar on Thursday as recession worries intensified following the Bank of England's warning of a drawn-out downturn and ahead of key a hotly anticipated U.S. employment report on Friday. Wall Street stocks ended mixed, with gains for high-growth stocks offset by the drag from energy shares, as a key U.S. jobs report loomed on Friday. The S&P 500 edged slightly lower to 4,151.94, retreating from a two-month closing high in the previous session. The Dow dropped 0.26 per cent to 32,726.82, from near an almost three-month high on Wednesday. The Nasdaq, though, swung to a 0.44 per cent gain to 13,311.041 from steep early losses, extending a three-month peak. The two-year Treasury yield eased 7.1 basis points to 3.0366 per cent, while the...

In a flurry of statements on Friday (August 12) against the backdrop of escalating US-China tensions, five of China’s biggest state-owned companies announced their intent to delist from the New York Stock Exchange – PetroChina Co Ltd, China Life Insurance Co, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, Aluminum Corp of China and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co, which represent more than US$300 billion in market cap. As of this month, the market cap of these Chinese giants are as follows: PetroChina $132.11 billion; China Life Insurance $94.88 billion; China Petroleum & Chemical Corp $70.23 billion. Aluminum Corp of China ($10.29 billion) is also the world’s second-largest alumina producer and third-largest primary aluminum producer; and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co ($3.77 billion) is a subsid...

Like many of Wordle's thousands of players, Bill Gates is addicted to the daily online word game. In a blog post on Tuesday, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder wrote that he and a group of friends play the game — and several of its variations, like Quordle and Nerdle — daily to compare scores. The billionaire also shared his strategy for guessing the answer in four turns or less. "If you've played Wordle, you know how important it is to make your first guess strategically," Gates wrote. "I like to start with a word that contains lots of vowels, like AUDIO or OUNCE." The New York Times, which bought Wordle in January in a seven-figure deal, recommended a similar game plan in February: Three of the five letters in your starting word should be vowels, regardless of whether or not you use...

KUALA LUMPUR :Oil prices rose on Wednesday (Aug 17), recovering from six-month lows hit the previous day, as a larger-than-expected drop in US oil and gasoline stocks reminded investors that demand remains firm, if overshadowed by the prospect of a global recession. Brent crude futures rose 56 cents, or 0.6 per cent, to US$92.90 a barrel by 0415 GMT (12.15pm Singapore time). West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed 62 cents, or 0.7 per cent, to US$87.15 a barrel. The contracts slumped about 3 per cent on Tuesday as weak US housing starts data spurred concerns about a potential global recession. "A drawdown of US gasoline stockpiles for a second straight week has reassured investors that demand is resilient, prompting buys," said Kazuhiko Saito, chief analyst at Fujitomi Secur...