Human rights group Amnesty International urged Singapore on Thursday to protect freedom of expression after an Asian magazine paid US$290,000 to settle a defamation suit by the country's prime minister and his father.

Singapore's former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said that the city started 'completely wrong' in Chinese language learning, admitting that it is a mistake to teach Chinese by enforcing rote learning.

Washington signaled it will resist protectionism as it copes with the economic downturn, announcing Saturday that the U.S. will join a free-trade area with other Pacific Rim nations.

When Chinese president Hu Jintao arrived in Singapore for a state visit this week, he announced China's favorite diplomatic gift — two pandas — but chose his words very carefully.

Fresh from a makeover, luxury leather goods and clothing label Bally is out to woo fashionable Asians, but not at the expense of European and American customers who have been harder hit by the downturn.

Singapore on Friday joined the white list of countries that have fully implemented international standards to fight cross-border tax evasion set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Finance Ministry said.

There is little the United States can do about the dollar's sinking value except restore confidence in its economy, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Friday.

A Singapore serial molester who sexually assaulted girls as young as 9 has to serve 32 years in jail after a court dismissed his appeal against his sentence, a media report said Monday.

A Singaporean opposition party member will be extradited to the United States and tried for allegedly trying to supply arms to Sri Lanka's defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, officials here said Tuesday.

A 75-year-old Singaporean woman has donated one of her kidneys to save her ailing daughter's life, becoming the city-state's oldest living organ donor, hospital officials said Thursday.