Singapore

Tourists from Indonesia & China make up almost 30% of the tourism share, with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo. (CNBC) Maria Bartiromo - CNBC - Singapore...

Singapore is a country feeling the decline in volume of global trade, reports CNBC's Maria Bartiromo. (CNBC) Maria Bartiromo - CNBC - Society and C...

US president to address Asia-Pacific Economic summit as part of his nine-day Asian tour....

US President heads to Singapore to address leaders at Asia-Pacific Economic summit....

CNBC's Jane Wells meets a woman who went to Singapore for knee-replacement surgery because her insurance didn't cover the cost of having the surgery i...

— Retail gas prices are spiking to levels last seen in the heat of summer driving season, raising fears that consumers could cut back on holiday spending.

But the crude rally propelling the jump at the pump hit the brakes Monday, as a barrel of oil tumbled more than 2 percent as the dollar strengthened after hitting a 14-month low.

The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline rose for the 13th straight day, adding sixth-tenths of a cent overnight to $2.671, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.

That's still below what drivers were paying at this time last year, but the 20-cent, two-week jump could prompt consumers already dealing with a climbing unemployment rate, depreciating home prices and damaged 401k accounts to spend less over the holidays, said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist with Moody's Economy.com.

"If they're spending more money at the pump, they're going to be less willing to go out to the malls to spend frivolously," Sweet said.

NEW YORK — Oil prices on Wednesday rose above $75 a barrel for the first time in a year because of a weak dollar and the belief that the upcoming holiday shopping season will bring more traffic to the roads.

Benchmark crude for November delivery added $1.03 to settle at $75.18 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The last time crude finished above $75 a barrel was Oct. 14, 2008, exactly one year ago.

Also helping to lift energy prices was the Dow Jones Industrials Average, which hit a new annual high and pushed past the 10,000 mark for the first time in more than a year.

Oil prices have wavered mostly between $50 and $70 a barrel since May with signs of an economic recovery emerging slowly. But a plunge in the dollar convinced many investors to pump money into crude and other commodities as a hedge against inflation.

Still, there are scant signs of definitive uptick in demand for fuel and refiners have been shutting down facilities for that reason.

SINGAPORE — Pirates off of Somalia's coast are becoming increasingly sophisticated and even an international naval force has done little to combat the scourge off the Horn of Africa, the Somali police chief said Wednesday.

Somalia, which has had no functioning central government since 1991, is unable to police its 1,900-mile (3,060-kilometer) coastline, allowing gangs to target ships throughout the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest sea lanes, said Abdi Hassan Awaleh, commissioner of the Somali Police Force.

"I can't say that up to now there has been any progress about piracy," Awaleh told reporters at an Interpol conference in Singapore. "The Somali government is fragile. The police have no power to chase or control such a long coastline."

Pirates have successfully hijacked 34 ships worldwide so far this year, mostly off the Somali coast, compared to 49 during all of last year, said Mick Palmer, Australia's Inspector of Transport Security, who has been conducting an inquiry on global piracy for Australia for the last nine months.

Experts estimate each successful hijack costs shipping companies about $7 million in ransom and other fees, and nets significant bounty for the pirates that has lured organized crime syndicates, Palmer said.

Inviragen Inc., a Colorado developer of vaccines, has merged with a Singapore company in tandem with a $15 million equity investment from a group of v...

NEW YORK — Oil prices climbed more than 5 percent, surpassing $70 a barrel Wednesday after a government report said the nation's gasoline supply dropped unexpectedly and demand increased from last year.

Benchmark crude for November delivery added $3.39 to $70.10 a barrel in late trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude rose $3.06 to $68.55 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

The Energy Information Administration put U.S. gasoline stockpiles at 211.5 million barrels last week, a drop of 0.8 percent from the prior week. It also said demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Sept. 25 was 5.4 percent higher than last year.

The price of oil, which is used to make gasoline, rose as investors placed some final bets on the last day of the quarter. Crude prices have waffled between $59 and $75 during the past three months, but equities markets surged during the quarter as investors became increasingly confident that the economy was healing.

Despite the drop last week, gasoline supplies are still considered to be well above normal. They're nearly 11 percent higher than they were last year, and much of last week's drop came as many U.S. refiners cut back on their operations.

Actress Lindsay Lohan will host three days of concerts featuring Beyonce Knowles and Black Eyed Peas to coincide with Sunday night's Singapore Grand Prix.

Lohan, 23, was a last-minute replacement after Pussy Cat Doll Nicole Scherzinger dropped out earlier this month. The concerts, known as F1 Rocks, run Thursday to Saturday and include No Doubt, ZZ Top, Simple Minds and N.E.R.D.

"It's a bunch of amazing performers whom I'm a really big fan of," Lohan said in an interview.

Lohan said she's also a Formula One fan.

"I like to drive. I like cars. I like fast cars," she said. "I studied NASCAR for almost a year for Herbie. It was very hot inside those cars."

SEOUL, South Korea – Most Asian stock markets fell Thursday amid a big drop in oil prices and as investors worried that support measures for the fragile global economy will be withdrawn too quickly.

The declines came after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged at a regular meeting in Washington Wednesday, as widely expected, and said the pace of economic activity has "picked up" since its last meeting in August.

But the Fed also said it said it would again slow some of its purchases of mortgage-backed securities, which have been part of the extraordinary support the central bank has given the U.S. economy over the past year.

Investors have focused on when central bankers and governments will begin to unwind some of the measures they have taken to boost the global economy since the onset of the global financial crisis one year ago.

"I think people get scared when the central bankers talk about the withdrawal from the market," said Francis Lun, general manager at Fulbright Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong "I think investors got coddled by the government for too long."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the Obama administration will engage with Myanmar's junta in a bid to promote democracy in the military-run state.

Clinton made the announcement Wednesday at the United Nations after meeting with her counterparts from a number of countries trying to convince the authoritarian regime to reform, allow dissent and release political prisoners, including Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

She said the decision to engage Myanmar authorities stemmed from a review of U.S. policy toward the country, also known as Burma, was initiated after President Barack Obama took office. The Bush administration had shunned Myanmar in protest of multiple crackdowns on the opposition.

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Watch the show from Wednesday, June 17: Continued protests in Iran, al-Qaeda in Gaza, health care in Singapore and giving cameras to kids in Nigeria....