ROME – THE founder of Tod’s luxury leather goods and shoes announced on Friday that he will foot the 25 million euros (S$44 million) to restore the Colosseum. The ancient Roman arena is blackened by pollution and rocked by vibrations from a nearby subway line. Officials accepted Diego Della Valle’s offer to sponsor the restoration. …
HONG KONG – TWO people were in critical condition in a Hong Kong hospital suffering from H1N1 flu, health officials said on Friday, one and a half years after an outbreak that killed 80 people in the city. ‘A 21-year-old female is in critical condition after contracting H1N1 flu, a spokesman for Hong Kong’s Queen …
Global – Microsoft’s devotion to Bing is straining some of its MSN partner relationships and has even cost the company some cash. The portal’s sales staff has been irked for some time by Microsoft posting myriad links to Bing on the home page rather than to MSN properties, the New York Post reported. And more …
Global – Collective buying site Groupon has continued its rapid growth around the world via acquisition, extending its reach across India, the Middle East and South Africa. Groupon has launched Groupon India, Groupon Israel and Groupon South Africa by acquiring local daily deal sites Sosasta, Grouper and Twangoo respectively. All three sites will transit to …
AN ITALIAN man amazed doctors by sneezing a bullet out through his nose after being shot in the head and is expected to make a full recovery. Darco Sangermano was hit by a stray bullet while he was celebrating New Year’s Eve with his girlfriend in Naples, Italy, reported Britain’s BBC news. The .22 calibre …
Singapore – Bonuses for Singaporeans this year are set to be the highest in Asia for 2011. According to a recent poll by human resources consultancy firm HR Business Solutions (HRBS), bonuses for Singaporeans this year are set to be 17% of the annual base pay. That works out to be about two months’ salary, …
DALIAN – A MAN has trained 60 cats to guard a grain depot from rats, the Dalian-based Peninsula Morning Post reported on Monday. Yin Chunzhu, an employee at a storage and transportation company in Dalian, north-east China’s Liaoning province has been dubbed ‘Cat commander’ for his army of feline guards. The barn, stocked with organic …
BRISBANE (Australia) – SNAKES clung to floating debris, crocodiles lurked near homes and sharks swam the streets in Australia’s epic floods – but many more animals died in the deluge, experts say. The devastating floods that smashed through the nation’s north-east would have drowned wombats in their burrows, trapped and starved kangaroos in waterlogged paddocks, …
SINGAPORE : Some Singaporeans living in Brisbane say they are shocked at the damage to their properties following the recent floods. The swamped Australian city on Friday began the heartbreaking task of cleaning up after its worst floods in decades. More than 26,000 homes were flooded, electricity remained cut off to thousands of homes, and …
DHAKA – BANGLADESHI security forces said on Saturday they had arrested the alleged leader of a gang responsible for amputating the limbs of children and forcing them into begging. Omar Faruq, 30, was arrested on Friday in a Dhaka suburb, said Colonel Zia Ahsan of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). ‘He has admitted that …