Japan calls off plan to start hunting humpbacks

Japan said on Friday it was dropping plans to start hunting humpbacks whale for the first time in four decades after protest lead by Australia seeking to spare the popular mammals . It is the first time that Japan has backed down over one of its whaling expeditions, which have been a longstanding strain in its relations with its Western allies.

Sir Lanka sacked airline chief

The British head of Sri Lankan Airlines has been sacked after the carrier, 51-per-cent governments owned, refused to bump passengers off a flight from London to make way from the President of Sri Lanka. The government of Sri Lanka said yesterday it was cancelling a work permit for Mr Peter Hill, who has been the carrier's chief executive for eight years. It blamed him for the air lines' refusal to clear 35 seats for President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his entourage on a flight from London to Colombo on Dec 13.

New Words
entourage->people accompanying VIP: a group of special employees who go with a high-ranking or famous person on visits and engagements

Construction worker arrested for maid's death

A Banglahdeshi worker has been arrested in connection with the murder of an Indonesian maid. Kamrul Hasan Adbul Quddus,34, is alleged to have caused the death of Ms Yulia Afriyanti,25, on the third floor of Viz@Holland at Block 3 Queensway between 10pm last Sunday and 11.07am the next day. Kamrul was arrested on Wenesday night at the worksite. Kamrul, who faces the death penalty if found guilty of murder, is being remanded at Central police disvision. His cases is up for mention on Thursday.

New Words
remanded-> return prisoner to custody: to return a prisoner or accused person to custody, or arrange for somebody to be released on bail when a court case is adjourned

Feeling the pinch

The battle of wills, inevitable with the introduction of a fare hike, is talking its tolls on taxi driver too. More than half of 20 ComfortDelGro drivers , whose company rolled out the hike on Monday, told Today that they were feeling the pinch , with their taking falling between 5 per cent to as much as 50 per cent. Could it be that the travelling public was staying away from using taxis in a knee jerk reaction to the hike? Or could the apparent fall in passenger be due simply to the fact that many were out of the country because of school holidays.

New Word
inevitable-> unavoidable: impossible to avoid or to prevent from happening

S'poreans on drug rap in India

Two singaporeans- one of them an alleged international drug kingpin-were arrested in Mumbai on Monday along with 290kg of raw material used to make party drug such as Ice and Ecstasy. The 63-year-old and 36-year-old, were extracting raw substances to make the drugs in a kitchen laboratory when officers from India's Nacrotics Control Burea busted the farm house, about 15km away from the city. Two Indians and one Mexican were also arrested when nacotics officers seized eight sacks of pseudo epethrine powder and several packets of kamagra tablets.