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1.  Muted optimism surrounds landmark talks just started between Pakistan and India. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Inder Kumar Gujral are meeting on the side of a south asian nations summit in the Maldives. But no breakthrough is expected as they continue to dispute over the Kashmir issue. The disputed region has been a thorn in peace talks between the two. But the Indian leader has expressed hopes the meeting will usher in a new era of bilateral cooperation. Today's meeting is the Highest level negotiations between both sides in four years.

2.  Just two weeks before polling day and Indonesia's election run-up has taken an interesting turn. The opposition has decided to band together to try and beat the ruling Golkar party. On the streets of Jakarta, supporters of the United Development Party or PPP and supporters of ousted Democratic Party leader Megawati Sukarnoputri put on a show of solidarity. The streets of the capital were brought to a virtual standstill by the rowdy rally closely watched by riot police. Analysts say the new alliance is not likely to affect the ruling party's chances on 29th May. The Golkar party's expected to easily retain its majority in parliament.

3.  More quakes struck Iran today, two days after a massive tremor devastated the country's eastern region. The earthquakes hit as relief agencies began sending aid and medical supplies to help the victims of Saturday's quake. More than two thousand people died and forty thousand injured during the first quake.

4.  The 5 month old Skills Redevelopment Programme is gaining momentum - with 17 more companies signing up today. The programme, to upgrade and certify the skills of Singapore workers, can now reach over three thousand older, less-educated employees. And not just those in multi-national corporations, but also in local firms.

5.  The Institute of Technical Education though is working on training those starting out with a new course in wafer fabrication - a key growth industry here. The course is designed to meet the current shortfall in skilled labour.

6.  The total number of visitor arrivals to Singapore in the first quarter this year has risen by 3.7 percent over the same period last year. The Singapore Tourist Promotion Board says this is on target for the 3 to 5 percent growth set for this year.

7.  MRT passengers say they have mixed feelings about the modified train that went into service today. Most passengers TCS spoke to, agreed that the train is more spacious and has room for more passengers. But, commuters who travel on longer trips, still prefer to be seated.

8.  Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew says people in Hong Kong are a pragmatic lot and know they have to live with China. He believes Chief Executive designate Tung Chee Hwa knows what he has to do to govern Hong Kong without jeopardising China's security and political interests. SM Lee was speaking in an interview with the Financial Times published today.

9.  President of the Ivory coast Mr. Henri Bedie is in Singapore for a four day official visit - his first here. The President of the west african nation's here following a one week visit to China and Hong Kong.

10. General Practitioners will soon be able to practice on synthetic models that feel and look like the actual human body.

11. In the battle of man versus machine, it seems machine has won. World chess champion Garry Kasparov fell to IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in the sixth game of their contest.

12. A report by the Hong Kong based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy - says Singaporean workers rank tenth out of twelve Asian countries when it comes to having company loyalty. But while Singapore's turnover rates were high, the country has one of the lowest labour militancy rates in Asia.

13. Computer makers in Singapore are going ahead with plans to launch PCs equipped with the latest Pentium-II processors. Brushing aside an admission by chip-maker Intel over the weekend that its new chip is flawed.

14. Australand - DBS Land's australian subsidiary - is seeking a dual listing on both the Singapore and Australian Stock Exchanges. The property developer from down under is the first Australian company to list on the local bourse. It's offering some 29 million vendor shares to Singapore investors and another 48 million new shares to Australian ones. Shares in both tranches are going for one-twenty Australian dollars each.

15. Said to be the first of it's kind in the region - an on-line computer system SMEs can tap into but need not upkeep. In its pilot phase, the Manufacturing Resource Planning service was developed by the NCB and the PSB together with American software firm Symix Systems.

16. The annual turnover for Singapore's industrial automation equipment was some $2.3 billion last year. This is expected to grow by 30 per cent annually for the next 3 years. This according to a survey by the industry authority, Singapore Industrial Automation Association which polled 3000 companies - that� 80 percent of the industry players in Singapore.

17. Two of Britain's most successful food companies, Grand Met, owner of Burger King and Haagen Dazs, and stout-maker Guinness PLC, have merged. The new company, called GMG Brands, will be one of the world's largest food and drinks group with combined spirits sales of over 100 million cases a year, and a market cap of nearly 50 billion dollars.

18. Malaysian national power company Tenaga Nasional's interim net profits have increased 38 percent to some 292 million dollars while revenue rose 25 percent to hit 2.6 billion dollars. Tenaga says it expects to do better in the second half. Counting on expected higher revenues from electricity sales and an 8 percent tariff increase secured this month.

19. Listed Want Want Holdings announced today its proposed 1 for 5 bonus share issue has been given in-principle approval by the Stock Exchange of Singapore.

20. Templeton Asset Management, one of the world's largest fund managers, today launched their pioneer Global Growth Fund in Singapore. This fund, which invests in shares of major corporations all over the world, will be the first here to be distributed through 3 foreign banks.

21. Announced today, the latest by Sing Power and Sing Tel in partnership to help you get around. They've put the business listings and the street directory on a CD-Rom. Instead of thumbing through this, you can soon search for that particular company - where it is and how to get there on your computer. This new BizMap Navigator lets you pin-point addresses of places and buildings. A click by building name will even show who the tenants are. The CD ROM's expected to hit the market before year end.