Singapore  - The Singapore government has set up a task force to check malpractice by employers of foreign workers, a Channel News Asia report said Thursday.

Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said the task force, set up in January, is to detect malpractice such as failure to pay workers' salaries on time.

The unit was to consolidate and analyse information surfaced from Manpower Ministry's inspections as well as intelligence it receives.

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Singapore - Singapore Airlines said Wednesday that 1,405 of its employees volunteered to take unpaid leave but it was not enough to steer the airline through the current tough times.

"We have approved 1,405 applications from staff for voluntary no-pay leave during the financial year which begins today," a company spokesman said Wednesday. "The vast majority of these come from cabin crew and are also for periods of less than one month."

Singapore - A housewife and her mother were sentenced to jail terms Tuesday after they pleaded guilty to abusing the family's Indonesian maid.

Loke Phooi Ling, 38, a permanent Singapore resident from Malaysia, was sentenced to eight and a half months while her mother, Teng Chen Lian, 67, received a four-week sentence, the Straits Times newspaper reported.

Both women changed their pleas last week midway through their trial in a Singapore district court.

Singapore - Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) Tuesday announced three initiatives to develop its options market.

The plan would enhance the existing SGX Nikkei 225 Index Options and SGX MSCI Taiwan Index Options contracts; launch the SGX MSCI Singapore Index Options contract; and introduce a web-based electronic trade registration system.

The initiatives would be implemented on 6 April 2009, the exchange said in a statement.

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