SINGAPORE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTS - FEB 2, 2004.

SINGAPORE, Feb 2 Asia Pulse - Highlights of today's newspapers:

THE STRAITS TIMES

- The deadly bird flu outbreak spread to five more areas in China yesterday, even as the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that the deaths of two sisters in Vietnam could have been caused by the disease being passed from human to human.

- Business travel to India is taking off fast as this vast market gains prominence as an investment centre on the back of an economic boom, fuelled by a red-hot growth rate above 8 per cent.

- Canada-based TD Waterhouse has pulled back its involvement in online brokerage DBS TD Waterhouse even as the joint venture has just turned profitable on the back of buoyant stock market activity.

- Bank lending in Singapore grew 3.4 per cent last year, driven largely by home and personal loans and reversing a contraction in 2002, data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) showed.

- Wall Street's stumble at the close of last week on the latest sub-par economic growth numbers and the ongoing worries over the bird flu epidemic in Asia are likely to keep local share prices trapped in a trading range this week.