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By K.c. Vijayan Senior Law Correspondent A FLAT owner's bid to challenge the HDB's move to take back his five-room unit ended yesterday when the Housing Board told the High Court it will withdraw its notice of intent to acquire the flat. Mr Chew Teck Fatt in return agreed not to proceed with his judicial review application. Justice Woo Bih Li, who made no order on the application, ruled that HDB pay Mr Chew's legal costs at the closed-door hearing. Yesterday's turn of events staved off a potential landmark case on whether the decisions of the HDB and the office of the Minister of National Development can be the subject of judicial review. When contacted last night, Mr Chew, a 38-year-old company director, said he was about to leave for Taiwan in the morning with a "heavy heart" as this matter had caused him stress for about two years. But "I felt very relieved and happy when my lawyer Kirpal called me and said the case was withdrawn, just as I was about to board the plane". An HDB spokesman The Straits Times spoke to warned that the board "takes a serious view of any unauthorised subletting as HDB flats are primarily meant for owner occupation. "In this particular case, as additional information had surfaced after Mr Chew had filed his court application, we decided to give him the benefit of doubt... "This avoids unnecessary litigation in court and will save both time and costs for the court and all the parties concerned." Mr Chew had bought the resale flat along Bukit Batok Street 25 for $480,000 in 2010. The next year, he let out a room to a couple and then a second to a Taiwanese man whose child went to school here. In both cases, he had HDB's approval. But a probe by HDB officers, which included surveillance of the flat and interviews with the tenants, found that he was not living there. It is a longstanding HDB policy that where an owner does not stay in his flat during the period of subletting, this would be evidence that the whole unit was being rented out. Subletting an entire flat without approval is against the rules, and can lead to the HDB compulsorily acquiring the unit. But Mr Chew denied renting out the whole flat and claimed he kept the third room for his use. He also said that there were times when he worked late or stayed at his mother's place at Jalan Bahagia in Balestier. At issue in the case would have been whether there must be continuous physical occupation of the flat before Mr Chew can be said to have abandoned his interest in the unit and was wholly subletting it illegally. At yesterday's hearing, the court was informed that both HDB and the minister would notify Mr Chew in writing that they would not pursue their notice of intent to re-acquire his flat made in December 2011 and January 2012 respectively. The minister's decision is made after any aggrieved party appeals to his office in a compulsory acquisition notice by HDB. [email protected]

<h2 style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(138, 33, 3); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation has agreed to underwrite

Gerhard Berger has backed Michael Schumacher amid a climate of continuing criticism of the seven time world champion's performance so far in 2010. Four races into 41-year-old Schumacher's F1 comeback at the wheel of a Mercedes, the critique of pundits has ranged from a verdict of disappointment to a harsh denigration of his skills after three years of retirement. "I find all the talk about Michael a bit tedious, because it is always with a negative slant," 10-time GP winner Berger, who raced in Schumacher's era until retiring in 1997, said on Austrian TV 'Sport und Talk aus dem Hangar 7'. "Michael has come back and is doing what he wants. I think you cannot change the status of someone who is a seven time world champion," added the 50-year-old former Ferrari and McLaren driver. Austrian Berger backs Schumacher to improve his pace in the forthcoming races. "We know his ambition. We know that if he does something, he does it right. I think we must take him seriously again in the future," he said. After the initial three races of 2010, Berger admits that Schumacher's performance in China was a setback. "It was weak, but that can happen," said the former teammate of the late F1 great Ayrton Senna. "I think he has done an excellent job so far -- except for the last race. In the first three grands prix he was in the top six of the championship. That is a great achievement," added Berger. Also defending Schumacher is his countryman and friend Sebastian Vettel, who until the great German's struggle in 2010 was nicknamed by the German press 'Baby-Schumi'. "He is yet to exhaust the potential of his car and will therefore get better from a driving point of view from race to race," the Red Bull driver told Switzerland's Motorsport Aktuell. "I wouldn't write him off for a long time," added 22-year-old Vettel. Force India's Adrian Sutil also sees nothing odd about Schumacher's comeback to date. "I had counted on it being difficult for him. Formula one has changed to the extremes in the past few years so that you can lose half a second and not know exactly why," he told spox.com. "Plus it would have been funny if Schumacher had beaten us all after three years of being retired -- then he really would have been the god of F1. "That doesn't mean he's doing badly; on the contrary, he's always in the top ten. He only needs time," added Sutil. Source: GMM

They all want to play Golf Hatchbacks are Europe

http://www.autospectator.com/modules/news/...hp?storyid=1191 It seems that SAAB is extremely committed to Ethanol as a bridging solution to the gasoline crisis before the advent of bio-hyrogen fuel. In fact, the 9-3 hybrid car has just been unveiled at the Stockholm Motor show: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/03/saab_unveils_e1.html "Combining a 260 hp (191 kW) 2.0-litre turbo BioPower engine and two electric motors totalling 53 kW, the BioPower Hybrid Concept can briefly generate torque values three times greater than its gasoline-only equivalent. The new modular hybrid system features a maintenance-free, 300-volt Li-ion battery pack designed to last the lifetime of the vehicle, a 38kW rear-mounted electric motor, a 15 kW integrated starter/generator (ISG) and all-wheel-drive with electric power transmission to the rear wheels. The all-aluminum 2.0-liter BioPower engine is modified to run on pure E100 ethanol fuel, giving zero fossil CO2 exhaust emissions, and operates in tandem with the electrical power system. This system offers fuel-saving stop/start functionality, torque boosting electric power assistance on demand, an electric-only