Singapore - Singapore's DBS banking group said its chief executive officer Richard Stanley, who was diagnosed with leukemia in late January, is in critical condition. "Stanley's condition has deteriorated rapidly in the last 24 hours and he is now in critical care," DBS said in a filing to the Singapore Exchange on Friday night.

Stanley had been responding well to treatment earlier and after two rounds of chemotherapy his doctors believed earlier this week that his cancer was in remission.

Singapore - A teenager who had sex with a 10-year-old girl was placed on 18 months of probation after a guilty plea, a newspaper reported Friday. Xia Yun, 19, pleaded guilty to two counts of carnal connection after having sex with the girl in his home in November 2007 when he was 17, the Straits Times said. He had sex with the girl again a few weeks later after she had turned 11.

The two met on a multiplayer online gaming website.

S

Singapore  - Singapore authorities have busted an illegal labour supply syndicate led by a Bangladeshi man and involving around 100 foreign workers, a news report said Thursday.

Shamsul Hoque Abdur Rahim, 40, and three Singaporeans were arrested by Manpower Ministry officials and the police following raids on various places in the city state.

Shamsul faces 125 charges for abetting, contravening work pass conditions and engaging in a business without a valid work pass under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (EFMA).

Singapore  - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Thursday that the city state's economic growth forecast for this year will have to be revised downwards from the current minus 2 per cent to minus 5 per cent as exports continue to be hit by the global economic slowdown.

But Lee said he did not think the decline would be double-digit.

Singapore's exports have been hit hard and the global situation was not looking any better, Lee told reporters during a visit to a local training and jobs placement centre.

Singapore  - A Swedish student and his Singaporean friend were charged in a district court Thursday for appearing nude in public at a popular restaurant district.

Jan Philip, 21, a Swedish student on an exchange programme, and Eng Kai Er, 24, a university student in Sweden, each face a fine of up to 2,000 Singapore dollars (1,321 US dollars) and a jail term of up to three months.

The duo stunned passers-by on January 24 when they strolled naked through Holland Village, which is popular among expatriates in Singapore.