In most cases, the reporters, and even the editors, use these words in a way that is not quite typical of standard English.
'The death toll from the landslide rose to 126 since Monday' and 'the department is working on the project since Thursday' are two common instances of the abuse of the word. The word 'since' to express a point of time should never be used with any tense other than the perfect. In cannot be used in the simple past tense as in the first example and in the present progressive tense as in the second.
'Since the sky is cloudy, you should carry an umbrella.' 'Since' is used in the sense of 'as' or 'because.' In UK English, 'as' is preferrable, and in US English, 'since' is the order.
'Since' and 'as' are weaker forms of 'because;' 'since' and 'as' means 'given that' when the reason is not very important. 'Because,' 'for the reason that,' 'due to,' and 'owing to the fact that' are more specific.
So is the case with the word 'for,' as in 'I am waiting here for a rickshaw for two hours.' This word to mean a period of time should also be only used in the perfect tense --- past, present or futrue. The use of 'for' for 'because' is a bit literary and is hard to come by in newspaper reports.
'The corporation pulled down the building despite the owner appealed for time extension.' The word 'despite' cannot join two fully functional complete clauses. A similar construction dropped by in a copy a few days ago: 'The ministry took up the project following the directorate carried out a survey.' In this cae, the word 'following' should have been changed to 'after' with the second clause in the past perfect tense.
The word 'till' is used to mean 'up to the time of,' 'before,' or 'up to the time that or when.' A copy a few weeks ago contained a sentence like 'the fair will begin till April 10.' It took a few seconds for the editor to understand that it was a perfect case of a novel use of the word 'till' for 'on.'
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