A woman was arrested who traded two young children for a bird and a bit of cash, the lead detective on the case said on Friday.
The story began several weeks ago when Greenwell pulled her cattle truck into a livestock dealer's to make a delivery. A couple had put up a flier at the dealer's, advertising a cockatoo they had for sale for US$1,500. the woman saw the picture of the cockatoo along with the phone number, and with her raising birds already, she called them up. The deal was sealed, and she handed over a five-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl to the couple in exchange for the bird and US$175.

A 42-YEAR-OLD woman, suffered a fracture to her skull and had nearly 100 stitches all over the body, she said that she was attacked by her maid. Phang Kian Huang, said that the maid attacked her with a wooden stool, a knife and a mortar at her apartment on Thursday. Several of her ribs were fractured and left ear almost severed in the attack. She needed 100 stitches after the attack on Thursday which left her with a fractured skull and an almost severed left ear. Phang said the maid attacked her while she was asleep in her apartment and claimed that the woman even pretended nothing had happened after the event.
Mrs Phang had to have 65 stitches on her head and neck, more than 20 stitches to rejoin her left ear and another 10 stitches on both knees.

Ten employers who supposedly had locals on their payrolls, hired about 1,000 foreign workers in their place. This is the largest number of employers the MOM has prosecuted at one go for using 'phantom' workers.
Under the law, businesses are required to hire a certain number of Singaporeans or permanent residents before they can employ foreigners. Some employers cheat by getting their hands on the details of unemployed locals, mostly retirees, and pretending to be hiring them, to make up the numbers. Then they hire foreigners instead. A MOM spokesman said a total of 50 companies are under investigation, including the 21 the 10 were involved in. They face 387 charges.
Facing the most number of charges were two men in the SME Group of companies, which provides cleaning services.

China gave a new food safety law on Saturday, tougher regulations and severe punishment for makers of bad products after tainted products showed serious flaws in the food industry. The law goes into effect June 1. China's government has been trying to restore confidence in the country's food system since September that infant formula was contaminated with melamine. The tainted milk is blamed in the deaths of at least six Chinese babies and the sickening of nearly 300,000 others. China's current system of splitting food safety responsibilities among many different agencies has resulted in uneven enforcement and confusion.

New extensions

around 550 residents of Jurong West Town took their first ride on the new Boon Lay MRT Extension on Saturday morning at an open house held by the LTA. The BLE, which took about three years to complete, will begin revenue service on Feb 28. It has two stations - the Pioneer Station and the Joo Koon Station. The Pioneer station is located along the Jurong West Street 63, while the Joo Koon Station services the industrial estate along International Road. The extension is expected to have a ridership of 35,000 commuters a day.

JOHOR BARU, 11 robbers who stole 300 sacks of rice from a warehouse had a short lived escape before police arrested them and recovered most of the loot. Police believe the gang, mainly foreigners led by a local mastermind, were responsible for over 20 cases of factory robberies in the state over the last eight months.

two security guards had been tied up during the robbery, with one of the guards sustaining injury to his head caused by a sharp object.

California, a SPORT utility vehicle filled with foreign students swerved off a highway, slammed into a tree and burst into flames, killing six of the seven people aboard. Two of the passengers were ejected from the vehicle and landed about 10 feet away. The other four victims were likely killed on impact before the SUV caught on fire, the SUV was going about five miles over the speed limit.