SINGAPORE CABBIE RETURNS $900,000 TO THAI COUPLE
A Singaporean taxi driver has been heralded as a hero after he returned Sg$1.1 million ($900,000) in cash to a vacationing Thai couple who left the money in his cab.

The driver received an undisclosed cash reward from the grateful couple, whose names have been withheld and the company also plans to give him an award for good service. The amount was the most valuable item returned by a taxi driver working for the company since 2009, when another taxi driver returned five kilograms (11 pounds) of gold bars worth Sg$377,000.

CHINA SAYS US OVERTAKES EU AS ITS TOP EXPORT MARKET
BEIJING: China said on Tuesday that the United States has overtaken the European Union as its biggest export market, as the continent’s debt crisis has sent demand slumping. Chinese customs figures for the first 10 months of this year showed that China’s exports to the United States totalled $289.3 billion, while shipments to the EU came to $276.8 billion. Japan, which is in the midst of a diplomatic row with China, slipped to fourth place, with China having shipped $125.3 billion in goods to Japan in the first 10 months of the year, compared with $163.9 billion to the 10 Asean countries, according to customs figures.

‘COLLAR BOMBER’ JAILED FOR AT LEAST 10 YEARS
SYDNEY: An Australian investment banker who attached a fake bomb around the neck of a Sydney schoolgirl in a bid to extort money from her wealthy family was on Tuesday jailed for at least 10 years. Paul Peters, 52, who was arrested and extradited from the United States in September last year with the help of the FBI, pleaded guilty to aggravated breaking and entering, and detaining the teenager for advantage. The father-of-three made global headlines when he broke into the multimillion-dollar Pulver family home wearing a mask and strapped a device to 18-year-old Madeleine’s neck with a note claiming it was a bomb in August 2011.

PROBE SET AFTER INDIA FESTIVAL STAMPEDE KILLS 18
PATNA, India: Authorities on Tuesday launched an inquiry into a stampede, which killed 18 women and children when a makeshift bridge collapsed at a Hindu festival, as devotees returned to pray at the scene of the tragedy. The incident in the eastern city of Patna, near the holy Ganges river, occurred on Monday as tens of thousands of worshippers rushed to offer prayers to the setting sun as part of the Hindu ritual of Chhath. Despite the disaster, thousands of worshippers returned to the site before sunrise on Tuesday to pray as part of the festival schedule, offering fruits to the gods, lighting candles and bathing in the sacred water.

SICILY OUSTS 21 MEDIA HANDLERS IN CRACKDOWN
ROME: Rosario Crocetta, the new head of the heavily-indebted island of Sicily. has kicked off a campaign to cut waste by firing his 21-strong press office, which costs the region 3.2 million euros ($4.09 million) a year. The team is four times as large as the one employed by the Italian government during flamboyant ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s era in power, and each journalist goes by the title of “news editor.” AFP