S-League Hall of Fame

Grant Holt (striker)

Then: Sengkang Marine, 2002

Now: Nottingham Forest (English League One)

Issey Nakajima Farran (striker)

Then: Albirex Niigata, 2004-05

Honours: 1 cap for Canada.

Now: Vejle Boldklub (Danish SuperLiga)

Suguru Hashimoto (midfielder)

Then: Albirex Niigata, 2005-06

Now: Vejle Boldklub

Hidetoshi Wakui (midfielder)

Then: Albirex Niigata, 2004-05

Now: Interblock Ljubljana (Slovenian division one)

Mohammad Khakpour (defender)

Then: Geylang United, 1996

Honours: League and FA Cup double; played for Iran at 1998 World Cup.

Now: Retired

Hamid Reza Estili (midfielder)

Then: Geylang United, 1996

Honours: League and FA Cup double; played for Iran at 1998 World Cup.

Now: Retired

News Today

Selling Singapore: Stories from the EDB trenches
MR KO Kheng Hwa, the managing director of the Economic Development Board (EDB), shares stories from the frontline in the battle for multinational investments: Wooing Shell with tenacity IT TOOK 'generations' of EDB officers to persuade petrochemical giant Shell to invest... [Read more]

Rotary's earnings surge to $35.2m
THE red-hot oil and gas sector has been a bonanza for Rotary Engineering, which yesterday reported record earnings of $35.2 million, up a staggering 320 per cent.Rotary helps build and maintain oil storage terminals and other infrastructure for the petrochemical industry.... [Read more]

Beijing's democracy drive at a standstill, analysts say
CHINA'S democratic development has come to a standstill and is even taking a step backwards, analysts said yesterday.However, in the long term, pressure from the ground will lead to progress, at a pace that is likely to be 'two steps forward... [Read more]

Shetty a star in UK Parliament
THE winner of Britain's reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother, Shilpa Shetty, was awarded VIP treatment on a visit to Parliament. During the visit, she thanked British Prime Minister Tony Blair for supporting her in the show's 'racist bullying' row. Shetty,... [Read more]

HK to attract big spenders
HONG KONG is hoping to draw big spenders to boost its tourism revenue this year, tourism chief Selina Chow said yesterday.Tourist arrivals may rise to 26.4 million this year, up 4.6 per cent from the last, she told media and industry... [Read more]

Thai PM removes national police chief
BANGKOK - PRIME minister General Surayud Chulanont yesterday sidelined the country's powerful chief of police General Kowit Wattana. In the move - which had been rumoured for months - General Kowit was transferred to an inactive post at the Prime Minister's... [Read more]

Bak kwa store shows off Wireless@SG's potential
TECHNOLOGY is helping bak kwa sales in the heart of Chinatown zip right along, despite massive queues as Chinese New Year nears. The Bee Cheng Hiang store in Pagoda Street, which gets some 2,000 customers in a week as the festive... [Read more]

Rare orchid found in Cameron jungles
IPOH - A MYSTERIOUS orchid picked up by two environmentalists deep in the jungles of Cameron Highlands has turned out to be the rare Monomeria barbata. Mr Embi Abdullah, 59, who stumbled across the orchid with his friend while trekking in... [Read more]

Taking off
ST Engg's strong results were led by its aerospace division, whose pre-tax gains rose 21 per cent to $305.3 million. Turnover jumped 35 per cent to $1.67 billion, helped in part by the rise of low-cost carriers which outsource maintenance services,... [Read more]

Stock market fever hits China's students
BEIJING - UNIVERSITY students on shoestring budgets have traditionally waited tables, flipped burgers at fast-food joints or taken on odd jobs to earn an extra buck. But recently, enterprising students in China are turning to a quicker, albeit riskier, way of... [Read more]

Chinese town aims to gain from Asean-China accord
PUZHAI (CHINA) - PUZHAI may be a remote border crossing, but it is in a Chinese region set on keeping its economy on track with raw materials flowing from its South-east Asian neighbours. The plot of dry, dusty land is fast... [Read more]

News Today

No need to shut new Thai airport: Panel
BANGKOK - THAILAND does not need to close its new international airport to repair cracks on taxiways and runways, a panel of investigators said yesterday, blaming the damage on underground water. Cracks have been found across 78,000 sq m, or roughly... [Read more]

Fresh round of clashes in Gaza
GAZA CITY - FIGHTING between rival Palestinian forces erupted again yesterday in the Gaza Strip, where 23 people have been killed in the fiercest bout of internecine violence since Hamas won elections a year ago. Three Palestinians died overnight as militants... [Read more]

Beijingers to be warned of harmful haze
BEIJING - RESIDENTS in Beijing will be warned in daily weather forecasts of the presence of haze, one of city's first steps to evaluate its air quality.>From Thursday, the municipal meteorological authorities will include such information on hazy days when humidity... [Read more]

I feared for my family, says Mikel
LONDON - CHELSEA midfielder John Obi Mikel has revealed why he defied manager Jose Mourinho and played for his country last Tuesday. It was because the Nigerian feared for his family's safety back home. Mourinho wanted Mikel to pull out of... [Read more]

US plans to put on a more welcoming face
WASHINGTON - THE US government and private sector are launching a massive effort to reshape America's image for foreign visitors amid concerns that tightened security measures have made the country inhospitable. The campaign comes as the number of visitors to the... [Read more]

Bellamy a 'scapegoat' for Liverpool's training-trip fracas
LIVERPOOL - CRAIG Bellamy has been made a scapegoat for Liverpool's training-camp ruckus in Portugal. Sources within the club suggest the 27-year-old Welsh international's bad-boy reputation was exploited to deflect blame from a large number of players involved in breaches of... [Read more]

What it should have been
In our article yesterday, '2 Aztech directors exercise options', we erroneously said that Aztech Systems' full-year earnings was $2.04 million.It should be $20.04 million. We are sorry for the error.... [Read more]

Shortest time in womb - now she leaves hospital
MIAMI - A PREMATURE baby who spent less time in the womb than any other surviving infant was to leave a South Florida hospital for her home yesterday. Amillia Sonja Taylor was just 24.13cm long and weighed 284g when she was... [Read more]

No longer noted
PHOTO: AFP Mount Everest will replace this picture of King Gyanendra on Nepalese 10 rupee (20 Singapore cents) notes, the country's government said yesterday. King Gyanendra was stripped of nearly all his powers following mass protests last year that ended nearly... [Read more]

Comeback kid Griselda wins top Sports School award
FOR someone used to cutting cleanly and smoothly through the water, the past year has been a roller-coaster ride for Griselda Khng. The national Optimist sailor ended 2005 with a South-east Asia Games gold medal after a tense deliberation by the... [Read more]

Shorter lead time for GST hike may cost more for firms
THE bad news: Singapore firms may have to pay more to implement the latest hike in the goods and services tax (GST) given the shorter deadline than for the last rise. The good news: Many firms have already started gearing up... [Read more]

McClaren in Becks U-turn?

LONDON - SIX weeks ago, David Beckham was dismissed as a 31-year-old has-been bound for a cushy retirement job in America.

Now, he has been resurrected as the man who could rescue England.

Even coach Steve McClaren admits he has to consider an improbable recall for the country's former captain.

'It gives me a problem, one of the problems you welcome,' he said on Wednesday.

'It's pleasing to see that a month ago, he would never play for Real again, and there he is starring in a game against Bayern Munich and being Man of the Match.'

On Tuesday night, Beckham had a hand in each of the goals in Real Madrid's 3-2 win over Bayern in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Two weeks ago, he scored in the 2-1 win over Real Sociedad in the Spanish league, saving the job of coach Fabio Capello.

And this was the same Capello who had declared that Beckham would never play for Real again, after the midfielder signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy on Jan11.

After a six-match exile, he turned around and declared: 'We doubted he could train with the same enthusiasm, but he has been training perfectly.

'I'm counting on him until the end of the season.'

McClaren is in the same boat as the Italian.

His seven-month tenure has been awful. After two wins, one dispiriting loss and one even more dispiriting draw, England are tied with minnows Israel and Macedonia for third in their Euro 2008 qualifying group.

Clearly, McClaren needs help, and he could always look at how Beckham has given a little CPR to Capello.

England midfielder Owen Hargreaves was in the Bayern side, and witnessed at close quarters exactly what Beckham still has to offer.

His verdict: McClaren would be insane not to recall the former England captain.

'If David plays like he did against us, then he can play his way back into any team,' he said.

'I've always said anyone who writes off Becks is mad.

'He was Real's most influential player against us by a country mile. Every chance seemed to come from his set-pieces or passes.'

Beckham has a crucial few weeks coming up.

He is suspended for Saturday's Madrid derby against Atletico, but returns to face Getafe the following weekend.

Then, there is the return trip to Bayern and another crunch tie at bitter rivals Barcelona, reported The Sun.

The icing on the cake will be the return to his former club Manchester United, with a European Select XI for a friendly on March 13.

Three days later, McClaren - who has to decide whether qualifying is more important than planning for the future - has to name his Euro squad for Israel and Andorra.

Beckham was felt to have too much influence under Sven-Goran Eriksson's indulgent regime. McClaren's decision to drop him on 94 caps was seen as a clear break from the past.

Can the coach swallow his pride and bring him back?

Walkouts can cause bigger trouble

AFTER 16 years as a player and 33 years as a manager travelling to all corners of the globe, the 65-year-old Alex Ferguson must have seen it all.

Then came Tuesday.

'I have never seen anything like that in football,' said the Manchester United manager, after watching Lille walk off the pitch to protest against Ryan Giggs' free-kick goal.

If Ferguson had seen or heard about Thailand's National Stadium walkout on Jan 31, during the Asean Football Championship final against Singapore, he was not letting on.

Lille's walkout in the Champions League tie was for just one minute, compared to the 15 minutes the Thais spent on the sidelines arguing against a penalty decision.

But Ferguson had every right to be upset by Lille's behaviour during the 1-0 win.

His expression - mouth slightly open in the cold French winter, face flushed with anger - said it all: walking out in the middle of a game has no place in sport.

At this point, the two incidents in Singapore and France take different routes.

The Asean Football Federation and the Asian Football Confederation felt a reprimand for the Thais was enough.

If the latest rumblings in Uefa are anything to go by, Lille can expect to receive more than just a ticking off.

And rightly so.

On the surface, acts such as walking off the pitch to protest against a decision may be simply childish.

But, scratch deeper, and you find that such behaviour can be a portent of something more sinister.

Thailand's walkout came and went without incident. Sadly, that was not the case at the Felix-Bollaert Stadium.

There is little doubt that Lille's antics fuelled raging emotions on the terraces. Missiles were thrown onto the pitch, and United's Gary Neville was hit.

Lille president Michel Seydoux countered that attempting to stop the match was never an option. In heading to the sidelines, his team were merely protesting the decision to allow Giggs' goal to stand.

'They are the French rules,' he added.

Newly-elected Uefa president Michel Platini may be French, but he is unlikely to agree with Seydoux.

Uefa is seeking to clean up an image tarnished by recent outbreaks of violence in Italy, Germany and France.

On Monday, Platini had urged all 16 remaining clubs in the Champions League to set good examples.

Lille were not listening. Maybe Ferguson was not either.

Ever the wily one, he added: 'I don't know who was responsible for encouraging them to take that line. But they kicked the ball into touch straight from the kick-off.

'We should have taken a quick throw-in, gone down the other end of the pitch and scored a second.'

How that would have gone down with the already maddened home fans does not bear contemplating.

What can be carefully considered is this: Uefa has already kicked Feyenoord out of the Uefa Cup for crowd trouble. It now has to send out a loud and clear signal that Lille were in the wrong.

It will be a signal that Asian football's bigwigs can learn from.

marclim@sph.com.sg

Electronics weakness clouds exports rebound

EXPORTS of made-in-Singapore goods jumped 11.1 per cent last month over the same period last year, beating forecasts and reversing December's sharp decline of more than 14 per cent.

The strong turnaround in non-oil domestic exports (Nodx) growth was more than double the median market forecast of 5 per cent in a survey of analysts by Bloomberg.

Driving the expansion was a 45 per cent surge in shipments to the United States, and a 25 per cent rise in those bound for China, according to monthly figures released by trade promotion agency IE Singapore yesterday.

But the rebound left some analysts unimpressed.

The January recovery 'masks the weakness in electronics', a sector which makes up half of Nodx, said United Overseas Bank economist Alvin Liew.

What drove up last month's export numbers were petrochemicals and drug shipments, he noted. The latter is given to wild swings from month to month.

Pharmaceuticals grew 12.6 per cent, while petrochemicals surged by more than 26.4 per cent, leading to a 18.8 per cent jump in non-electronics Nodx.

But the crucial electronics segment grew just 2.1 per cent.

And even this modest improvement in electronics was not greatly aided by growth in sales of semiconductor chips - the industry's main money-spinner.

Chip shipments were only 0.5 per cent higher from a year earlier.

Rather, a bigger element of the improvement came because exports of disk drives - an industry probably seeing the final effects of last year's plant closures - fell less steeply last month.

A slump in global technology demand and consolidation of the disk drive industry had plagued electronics exports, which fell 19.3 per cent last December.

The electronics slump may not be over, noted Citigroup economist Chua Hak Bin, as non-oil retained imports of intermediate goods fell for the sixth consecutive month, dipping 6.6 per cent last month.

This figure refers to imports of manufacturing inputs such as chip components, which are an important indicator of future production and exports.

There is another factor to explain why this month's export growth is likely to be sluggish. Chinese New Year public holidays fell in January last year, but are in February this year.

That gave last month three extra working days over January last year, partly contributing to the latest rebound, reported IE Singapore.

But it also means that last February's strong electronics performance is unlikely to be outdone this month, said Dr Chua.

'The high base and timing of Chinese New Year this year suggests that electronics export growth will likely turn negative again this month on fewer working days,' he predicted.

Singapore-made exports had a mixed showing among the country's top 10 Nodx markets last month.

Nodx to America improved spectacularly, with sales of telecommunications equipment up more than 400 per cent while shipments of drugs more than trebled.

Exports to Malaysia, the US and China reversed last December's single-digit declines to stage double- digit growth last month. But shipments to another four of the top 10 destinations fell.

These markets are Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan and the No. 1 market - the European Union's (EU's) 27 member states. Singapore sold less drugs and telecoms equipment to the EU while the decline in Japan-bound Nodx was partly due to lower sales of semiconductor chips.

Overall trade with the world expanded by 14 per cent to hit $68 billion last month, reported IE Singapore.

This was boosted by faster growth in imports as well as the recovery in exports.

Oil domestic exports from Singapore, a major oil refining centre, also climbed 5.5 per cent last month, after sliding 16 per cent the previous month. This was mainly due to significantly higher sales to Indonesia, Australia and China.

With technology demand expected to bottom out only in the second or third quarter this year, analysts expect non-electronics to drive Nodx growth for the time being.

'We expect demand for pharmaceutical exports to remain intact, especially to key European export destinations, although the sector is unlikely to replicate its sterling 2006 performance,' said Mr Liew.

ericatay@sph.com.sg

Summary of the Day

Thirteen killed by dengue this month
KUALA LUMPUR - THIRTEEN people have died of dengue fever in Malaysia this month. Most of the deaths were in the state of Selangor, where the authorities are scrambling to contain an outbreak, a news report said yesterday. Eleven people in... [Read more]

Moves to make property market more transparent
THE Government's move to provide more property price information will help make the market a more level playing field, industry experts said. Yesterday, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said the Urban Redevelopment Authority will release additional price indexes for three... [Read more]

Technorati Profile
Technorati Profile... [Read more]

Results
AMERICAN FOOTBALL NFL play-offs - AFC Championship: Indianapolis 38 New England 34. NFC Championship: Chicago 39 New Orleans 14. Chicago and Indianapolis advance to the Super Bowl. BASKETBALL NBA: Dallas 99 Miami 93, San Antonio 99 Philadelphia 85, Phoenix 131 Minnesota... [Read more]

M1 dishes out cash bonanza on surprise 2.2% income rise
M1 SHAREHOLDERS had much to cheer about after the telco announced a bumper cash payout and a surprise rise in its annual profits yesterday. The mobile operator, the smallest in Singapore, is paying out a larger-than-expected $296 million in cash to... [Read more]

For diets to be modified, label trans fat
IN THE letter, 'Both saturated fat and trans fat are harmful' (ST, Jan 11), the Health Promotion Board (HPB) and the Singapore Heart Foundation (SHF) advised Singaporeans to reduce their intake of both fats, through dietary modification, so as to reduce... [Read more]

Results
BASKETBALLNBA: Phoenix 115 Cleveland 100, Milwaukee 107 New York 105, San Antonio 96 LA Lakers 94 (OT), Washington 105 Boston 91, Detroit 95 Indiana 87, LA Clippers 98 Seattle 76.CRICKETTri-series one-day international in Perth: Australia 343-5 in 50 overs (Hayden 117,... [Read more]

India reforms: Only 3% understand
NEW DELHI - INDIA may be registering blistering rates of growth but only 3 per cent of its people understand the economic reforms being implemented and most think they have benefited only the rich, said a survey published yesterday. 'Seventy-two per... [Read more]

Purchases abroad allowed, why disallow sale here?
I REFER to the recent debate on the sale of human organs.  While there are many forms of organ transplant, kidney and liver transplants would be the two most viable and much needed that would be carried out under a legalised... [Read more]

Why no huge canopy over Chinatown stalls
I REFER to Ms Shirley Pang Guan Guan's letter, 'Build huge tent over Chinatown festive street stalls' (ST, Jan 16).We thank Ms Pang for her suggestion to make Chinatown festive street stalls a more conducive place to visit and shop during... [Read more]

Hong Kah residents can cash in on trash
TRASH can now be exchanged for food. Residents in Hong Kah are being coaxed into making recycling a way of life in a pilot programme.Recycling their unwanted old newspapers, clothes, plastics and drink cans earns them points, which can then be... [Read more]