Singaporean held hostage at Mumbai’s Oberoi Hotel killed

Singapore’s Foreign Ministry says the Singaporean Chinese woman held hostage at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai has been killed.
Speaking at a news conference at the Ministry, Director of the Consular Directorate Jai Sohan Singh said they were told at 9:35pm Singapore time that she died tragically.
This was after her husband, who had flown up to [...]

India battles to bring attacks under control

Special forces stormed a Mumbai Jewish centre and battled to free guests at two hotels Friday, as India blamed Pakistan for an audacious Islamist militant attack that left at least 130 people dead.
Troops and security forces were still trying to bring the situation under control more than 36 hours later in India’s financial capital, where [...]

Totem Talk: Grizzly Hills, Zul’Drak, and the Troll Instances

Before we get rolling with today’s column, I direct you to yesterday’s good news for elemental shamans. Soak it in, folks. Buffs for elemental with no huge nerfs attached? It’s like a holiday or something. You should go eat Turkey to celebrate. I’ll wait.
Okay, now we move on to yet more gear. Last time we [...]

Exploitation and the demise of Heroic Leap

There was a time in the beta of Wrath of the Lich King that Warriors everywhere were excited little special snowflakes. They had not one but two, count ‘em two, special talents: Heroic Leap and Titan’s Grip.
While the dual wielding goodness/badness that is Titan’s Grip continues today, Heroic Leap was removed mid-beta with Warriors everywhere [...]

Scattered Shots: Reputation rewards for Hunters in Wrath of the Lich King

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! You didn’t think Scattered Shots was taking the day off, did you? Hopefully, there’s enough of you who aren’t completely zonked out on turkey, ham, or beef to read this.
So by now, I figure most of you are well on your way to 80, and are probably starting to ask yourself: Which [...]

Elemental Shaman changes in patch 3.0.4

Ghostcrawler, in a post to the Damage Dealing forums, outlined upcoming changes to Elemental Shamans. It’s a pretty substantial talent overhaul for the tree, aimed at streamlining and improving scaling at higher levels of gear. (And boy, is that a good thing.) Unlike the recent post changing how totems work as AoE, this is a [...]

The Queue: Death Knight jamboree

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider’s daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.

Yesterday the topic of profession daily quests came up, and there was a little confusion around it. The way the question was phrased combined with how my response was phrased made it sound [...]

The Queue: Feasting and Fishing

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider’s daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.
Welcome back! Since yesterday’s picture of Malygos was so awful, I decided to give up on his righteous beard and take a picture of his lightning breath instead. Yeah, see that up there? [...]

Varian Wrynn hates the Horde

It really can’t be disputed at this point: Varian Wrynn is not fond of the Horde, at all. There will be no Jaina-style mash notes to Thrall coming from Varian any time soon.
If you saw the brief window of time before the launch of Wrath where Varian and his allies talked about the onslaught of [...]

Some Paladin changes announced for patch 3.0.4

A lot of hints and news on the upcoming patch 3.0.4 have been dropped on the forums recently, so like other WoW Insider writers have mentioned on and off, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw it on the PTR in the coming weeks. Before we get ahead of ourselves too much though, there was [...]

Obama presses aggressive economic recovery plans

President-elect Barack Obama will press his aggressive plans to deal with his nation’s woes Wednesday when he holds his third press conference in as many days focused on the stricken US economy.
Obama is also expected to round out his economic appointments at the 1545 GMT briefing, which comes after the Federal Reserve said it would [...]

Visitor arrivals, tourism receipts to fall short of 2008 targets

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has said the country’s visitor arrivals and tourism receipts are expected to fall short of this year’s targets.
STB had targeted 10.8 million visitor arrivals and S$15.5 billion in tourism receipts for 2008. But the latest figures for October showed a further decline in the tourism industry.
Visitor arrivals to Singapore last [...]

PM returns to Thailand, says no decision on polls

Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat landed in the northern city of Chiang Mai on Wednesday, and said he had not yet decided whether to heed a call by the army chief to dissolve parliament.
Air force spokesman Montol Suchookorn said Somchai landed at 6:00 pm (1100GMT), an hour after General Anupong Paojinda urged him to [...]

Healthcare costs not a problem during recession with S$42b in reserves

Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said healthcare costs will not be a problem during this recession.
Speaking at the NHC Time Capsule event on Saturday, he said most Singaporeans have sufficient savings in their Medisave accounts, and hospitals will be more generous with Medifund applications during these hard times.
The total reserves for healthcare stands at S$42 [...]

Singapore deepens Peru ties as it seeks new markets amid economic downturn

Singapore and Peru are in talks for a possible Air Services Agreement that will improve transport links between the two countries.
The initiative is one of several under the recently signed Singapore-Peru Free Trade Agreement.
Both sides underscored their deepening relations when Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong met Peruvian President Alan Garcia Perez on the sidelines [...]

Supporters protest Taiwanese ex-president’s detention

Pro-independence groups rallied in Taiwan’s capital on Saturday in support of former president Chen Shui-bian, who has been detained over corruption allegations.
Protesters, wearing yellow headbands reading “political persecution,” demanded justice for Chen, who has gone on hunger strike to protest what he says are politically motivated allegations against him.
Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairwoman Tsai [...]

Temasek’s senior management take voluntary pay cut of 15-25%

Senior management of investment company Temasek Holdings have volunteered to take pay cuts of between 15 and 25 per cent. They are leading Temasek’s company-wide wage cuts as it repositions itself for the long term.
In a statement, Temasek said in total, nearly 90 per cent of the wage saving will be borne by its key [...]

China’s Hu salutes Bush, hopeful for Obama

Chinese President Hu Jintao has thanked US President George W. Bush for improving Sino-US ties and said he hoped Barack Obama will follow suit upon taking office January 20, a Chinese official said.
As they opened their last meeting as heads of state, Bush allowed he was “a little nostalgic” about his ebbing time in office [...]

Singapore cuts GDP forecast, says economy could contract in 2009

SINGAPORE: Singapore on Friday further downgraded its growth forecast for this year and said the economy could contract in 2009, after weaker than expected third-quarter GDP figures.
Next year, the city-state expects its GDP to range between a contraction of 1.0 per cent and growth of 2.0 per cent, in view of increased uncertainties in the [...]

S’pore government to provide extra S$2.3b in loan support to businesses

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Coping with the Crisis

SINGAPORE: From next month, the government will enhance its business financing schemes to support an additional S$2.3 billion in loans to help local firms gain access to credit in the current economic slowdown.
The measures will [...]

The Queue: Reputation, daily quests, and performance in Dalaran

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider’s daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.
Daily quests and reputation has been a really hot topic lately, not only in The Queue but across WoW in general. Some of our questions today will focus on that, but I’d also [...]

Somali pirates demand US$25m ransom for oil tanke

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MOGADISHU: Somali pirates who hijacked a Saudi oil super-tanker demanded a 25 million dollar ransom on Thursday amid calls for tougher action to end threats to one of the world’s key maritime routes.
As global frustration built and a major shipping company ordered some of its vessels to avoid the Gulf of [...]

Girls make up top PSLE students across main ethnic groups

SINGAPORE: Girl power prevails in this year’s Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) results.
The top PSLE students across Singapore’s three largest ethnic groups are all girls.
A total of 49,856 Primary 6 pupils sat for the PSLE this year, with 97.1 per cent of them qualifying for secondary school education, down slightly from last year’s 97.7 per [...]

Bangkok protest blast kills one, wounds 29

BANGKOK: A grenade attack on demonstrators occupying the Thai premier’s offices killed one person and wounded 29 on Thursday, prompting protest leaders to call for a new march against the government.
In the first fatal assault inside the Government House compound since the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) stormed it in August, unknown attackers fired the [...]

Taliban warns of reprisals as Pakistan protests US drone attacks

ISLAMABAD: A militant Taliban group warned on Thursday of reprisals in Pakistan if there was another US drone attack, as the government condemned the latest missile strike in its territory.
Top Pakistani Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur warned he would mount revenge attacks if the US carried out further strikes in tribal territory after missiles fired [...]

Ready Check: Preparing for Wrath raiding

Ready Check is a weekly column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, ZA or Sunwell Plateau, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. This week, we venture into new (well, sort of) territory…
While many people are taking a leisurely stroll towards 80, seeing the sights and [...]

Ask a Lore Nerd: Yogg-Saron and Warchief Garrosh Hellscream

Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week blogger and columnist Alex Ziebart answers your questions about the lore and history of the World of Warcraft. Ask your questions in the comments section below, and we’ll try to answer it in a future edition.

Wrath of the Lich King is finally here, and with it [...]

All the World’s a Stage: So you want to be a Horde Warrior

This installment of All the World’s a Stage is the thirteenth in a series of roleplaying guides in which we find out all the background information you need to roleplay a particular race or class well, without embarrassing yourself.
The Warrior is not merely a well-trained fighter who loves his weapons and armor and takes [...]

Spiritual Guidance: Wrath Priest leveling guide from 70 to 75

Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. This week Matticus is going to look the introductory zones of 70 to 75.!
Welcome to [...]

The Light and How to Swing It: Starting zone upgrades in Northrend

Did you pack well enough for the cold? Allie gave great advice on some basic things we need while we’re in Northrend, like food and other consumables. Depending on your level of progression or gear, your approach to questing or leveling out here will vary quite a bit. For well-geared players, it’ll be a breeze [...]

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