SINGAPORE — Noel Peter Xavier was pulled from the brink of death almost 11 years ago at the age of 40. Then a workaholic and a party animal, he felt unwell on May 13, 2013, after a party at his friend's place. «It happened to be Mother's Day that day, and I was rushing home to share a meal with my mother. She had prepared briyani, my favourite,» said Xavier, who was divorced at the time. «I was on my way home when I felt the left side of my body pulling away from the rest of me. It felt heavy. My head was spinning and I threw up. To steady myself, I sat by the kerb. That was when I blacked out. I guess passers-by thought I had a heart attack, and they called an ambulance.» He had suffered a stroke, and doctors found a blood clot the size of a golf ball in his brain. After two operations — during one of which he suffered another stroke on the operating table — Xavier fell into a coma, with doctors giving him only a five per cent chance of survival. But he overcame the odds and even wrote a book, titled Zero To Hero, which documents his journey out of darkness. It will be launched at the National Library in Victoria Street in early June.

A man ordered items from Tip Top Curry Puff at One Raffles Place on Labour Day (May 1) — only to be told that the store was closed and he could not get a refund. Stomp contributor Jon shared with Stomp he had paid $10.08 for his order but was livid when he was told by a Grab customer service agent that they were 'unable to process a refund' for him as the order was ongoing. The agent explained that the opening hours for the store differed on Labour Day due to it being a public holiday and apologised that this was not updated on the app. Jon asked the agent: «Are you expecting me to pay for something you cannot deliver? Or do I have to put this on Stomp just to get my refund?» PHOTO: Stomp The agent apologised again and said that because the order was categorised as a self-pick-up, only the merchant could cancel the order. 

SINGAPORE — Regrets, she's had a few — but they don't keep Carolyn Too up at night. Pain, however, does — a sharp stabbing pain from cancer tumours in her abdomen. «When it gets really bad, I take an ice pack and put it on my stomach until the pain subsides,» says the 48-year-old, who was told by her oncologist in May 2023 that she probably had six months to live. As she is also a renal patient, Too takes painkillers only when the pain is unbearable, as analgesics reduce blood flow to the kidney. After being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2022, she went through two rounds of unsuccessful chemotherapy and an operation to remove her womb. The cancer has spread to other parts of her body. For someone facing Death's dark gaze, the former business development manager is remarkably cheerful, chirpy even. «When I was told I had only six months, I said: 'Okay, fine. Let's make the best of the six months.' I refuse to mope about it. I can wake up every day and say: 'I'm dying, I'm dying.' But I try not to. »My mind at that point in time was: 'Bucket list, bucket list. What do I want?'"

Member of Parliament Tin Pei Ling has shared an update on the 15-year-old girl found living at the wet market along Circuit Road in a 10-minute video posted to Facebook on Friday (May 3). Recalling her visit to the child at the hospital on Thursday, Tin said the girl is «coping well», «healthy» and «cheerful». The teenager had showed Tin her new soft toys, along with a Pokemon game card that another child patient had given to her. Her father also regularly visits her at the hospital, added the MacPherson MP. She said: «While the father is assisting with investigations… the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) is also working hard to work out a longer-term care arrangement for her.» To that end, foster care appears to be the best option for the girl and the MSF is currently reaching out to its foster network to do so, Tin said.

SINGAPORE — Heavy rain prompted flood warnings for large parts of Singapore on the morning of May 4, and caused delays at Changi Airport. At about 10am, PUB posted a flood alert on social media platform X that heavy rain was expected over «many areas of Singapore» from 10am to 10.45am. Earlier, the national water agency also put up three posts saying that heavy rain was expected from 6.45am to 7.45am, 7.45am to 8.30am, and 8.05am to 9am. PUB also told the public at about 8.10am to avoid TPE (Punggol West Flyover) and Jalan Pokok Serunai in Bedok for an hour, because of heavy rain. The agency warned about the risk of flash floods as well, in Upper Paya Lebar Service Road (from Lim Teck Boo Road to Rochdale Road), Jalan Lokam near Upper Paya Lebar Road, Thrift Drive near Jalan Usaha, Jalan Seaview, the junction of Mountbatten Road and Tanjong Katong Road South, as well as Craig Road from Duxton Road to Tanjong Pagar Road. An event involving Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat launching an unmanned aircraft flying area at the Dover Hiking Trail was postponed because of the bad weather.

A terminally ill taxi driver suffering from renal failure and autonomic dysfunction has organised a banquet to express his gratitude to family, friends and doctors, also donating $3,000 to charity and planning his own funeral, Shin Min Daily News reported on Friday (May 3). The 46-year-old Su Zhixiong (transliterated) also suffers from hyperlipidemia, hypertension, hyperglycemia and had lost two toes to diabetes in 2019. Due to his autonomic dysfunction, standing too long makes him dizzy and might cause him to faint. A checkup also revealed he has kidney disease and requires treatment, but he refused to do so, reported the Chinese daily.  «In the past four years, I've been in and out of the hospital, sometimes staying for 12 to 18 days,» he told Shin Min, adding that the cost of dialysis is too high and he doesn't wish to financially burden his family even more. As his condition deteriorated, so did his relationship with his mother due to the pressure on the household's finances. He reportedly forced himself to continue working as a taxi driver till March, when his condition worsened and his vision started blurring.

SINGAPORE – A 22-year-old man was in the early hours of May 3 arrested for drunkenness in public causing annoyance, after latching onto the rear of a moving armoured security vehicle. He held on for about 850m between Victoria Street and Stamford Road, until he was discovered by the auxiliary police force officers in the vehicle, the police said. The security officers then got out of the vehicle, at which point the man “immediately stepped down and walked away”, police added. Investigations revealed that the man – who appeared intoxicated – had tried to enter the armoured vehicle at about 3am that day in Queen Street when the auxiliary police force officers were loading ATM cash cartridges into the armoured vehicle. They stopped him before driving off. The officers called the police for assistance at about 4.20am after discovering the interloper. The man was arrested within two hours. He will be charged in court on May 4. If found guilty of drunkenness in public places and causing annoyance, he may be fined up to $1,000, jailed for up to six months, or both.

SINGAPORE — Singapore law firm Shook Lin & Bok was hit by a ransomware attack in April, and the incident is now under investigation by the local authorities. In response to queries from The Straits Times, the firm said in a statement that the incident was discovered on April 9, and it immediately engaged a cyber-security team. The firm's systems were contained as of 2am on April 10, and the incident has been reported to the police, Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), and Personal Data Protection Commission Singapore, the statement said. The firm is working closely with cyber-security teams and other specialists to minimise impact on its clients and stakeholders. There is no evidence so far that the firm's document management systems which contain client data were affected, and the firm continues to operate as usual, the statement added. According to a report by independent website SuspectFile, which posts primarily about ransomware incidents, the law firm allegedly paid 21.07 bitcoins to Akira ransomware group spread across three transactions.

SINGAPORE — Despite five futile attempts to enter the polytechnic of his dreams, Aloysius Lim was unfazed. He finally succeeded on his sixth try and was accepted into Nanyang Polytechnic's (NYP) Infocomm and Media Engineering course. Three years on, the 24-year-old has excelled and graduated with a near-perfect grade point average of 3.99 out of 4. Lim is one of 5,300 graduates from NYP's Class of 2024 and is also one of the polytechnic's top eight graduates. On May 3, he received from Education Minister Chan Chun Sing the Tay Eng Soon Award for ITE Upgrader, presented to the most outstanding graduate who progressed to NYP from the Institute of Technical Education. When asked how he felt when he eventually received the acceptance call from NYP, Lim said: «I don't know how to explain the feeling, it's like I finally made it into my dream school after five years.» The former Greendale Secondary School student first wanted to apply to NYP in 2017, but did not qualify as he received an E8 in English language at the O-level exams. The minimum requirement to enter a polytechnic was a D7 for the subject.

A Singaporean man almost became the target of a lynch mob in Batam on April 29 after he was suspected of trying to kidnap a child. According to an iNews report on May 1, the man, who was identified as GW, had gone to a convenience store in a residential area at Batu Aji, Batam. When he came out of the store, the bespectacled man gave some of his sweets to a child who was playing nearby. An individual saw this and accused GW of trying to kidnap the child. Locals started to crowd around the trio and the mob became more hostile as it grew in size. Fortunately, a police patrol car was passing and officers stepped in to take the Singaporean away from the mob. GW had trouble explaining himself at the police station as he did not speak Bahasa Indonesia but the police did not find any reason to suspect a kidnapping attempt as alleged by the locals. Batam Immigration Office head Samuel Toba said: «What the man did was not a common gesture in the area, so the community grew suspicious.» Toba added that GW was deported in order to remove him from the hostile situation.

Shortly after achieving an all-time high resale flat price of $968,000, Sengkang has crossed the million-dollar line in the same month.  This is the first time a resale flat in that estate has reached the million-dollar mark.  A 1,539 sq ft maisonette at Block 205B Compassvale Lane was sold for exactly $1 million in April, HDB records showed. Located on the seventh to ninth floor, the flat is 25 years into its 99-years lease, which commenced in 1999.  Block 205B is within a 10-minute walking distance to Buangkok MRT station and Sengkang Grand Mall. It is also within a one to two kilometre radius to schools such as North Vista Primary School, Sengkang Primary School, and North Vista Secondary School. PHOTO: Screengrab/HDB In a media statement released on Wednesday (May 2), Singapore Realtors Inc (SRI) said that one of their agents facilitated its sale last month.

One is an organisation representing the security services industry, the other is a union for security workers. Both parties are now in a war of words over a video produced with the intention of educating security officers to report non-compliance of the Progressive Wage Model (PWM). The model aims to help raise the income of lower-wage workers, including security officers, by developing a clear career pathway for them, alongside training and improving their productivity.  The video, commissioned by the Union of Security Employees (USE), is produced by local content producer SGAG and was uploaded on the latter's Instagram page on April 25. But the Security Association Singapore (SAS) has taken offence at how security officers are portrayed in the clip. It shows a skit where two security officers are being briefed by their superior and ask several silly questions, including whether they can get guns to shoot terrorists and when to go for toilet breaks. 

When she was told that the seat she wanted was taken and that she had to sit somewhere else, one woman lost her cool and threw the hot cocoa she had just ordered on the countertop. The incident, which was captured on CCTV, happened on Wednesday (May 1) afternoon at The Homme Baker, a bakery cafe in Queenstown. It filed a police report the next day. On the day of the incident, the bakery shared the CCTV footage in an Instagram story, seeking help to identify the woman so it could make a police report and file claims for any damage to its equipment. «This customer threw her scalding hot cocoa on our countertop and all over our electricals, potentially causing damage to our POS (point-of-sale) equipment,» the bakery wrote.  It added that the woman had supposedly gotten upset after being told that the four counter seats were occupied and she had to sit at the communal area outside. «She also used [an] expletive... on one of our bakers. We do not tolerate such abusive language or behaviour towards any of our staff.»

In his May Day Rally speech this week, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong noted that Singapore once experienced frequent train breakdowns but that rail reliability has since improved significantly. He attributed it to the efforts of SMRT and Land Transport Authority engineers, as well as employees of the National Transport Workers’ Union. But what most people do not know is that PM Lee himself was very much involved in helping to resolve the issue, former transport minister Khaw Boon Wan revealed in an interview with Petir, the People's Action Party digital newsletter. Khaw, who entered politics in 2001 and retired in 2020, took up the transport portfolio after the General Election in 2015 — amid persistent problems with the MRT system that became a hot-button issue leading up to the polls. The government was on a quest to improve the reliability of the rail system. Khaw, 71, who is now the chairman of SPH Media Trust, recalled that PM Lee took a personal interest, even in the engineering details of the rail network.

One property agent has declared that he will now require students to fork out a higher deposit up front, after a group of them left a rental condo unit in disarray. Taking to TikTok on Wednesday (May 1), Eric Yeo from Propnex Realty said in a video that he had a «horrible» handover at Parc Riviera on West Coast Vale. Entering the unit, Yeo added: «I think it is going to be a tough time to pass over to the next tenant». In the two-minute clip, it showed that the previous student tenants had left several belongings - including a mattress propped up in the living room - behind. Giving a tour of the kitchen, Yeo briefing panned the camera to a dirty sink and appliances that were still on the hob as well as inside the drawers. «How can people live in these kinds of conditions?» The property agent said, before showing a half-filled fridge that was supposed to be cleared out during a handover. «When I hand the condo to you, it's in superb tip-top condition,» Yeo added. «Are you now torturing me in this kind of manner?» Towards the end of the inspection. Yeo said that only the master bedroom was left in a decent condition.

A woman was caught on video tripping a young boy and causing him to fall at United Square shopping mall on May 1. Stomp contributor John alerted Stomp to the incident and shared CCTV footage of the woman caught in the act. «This crazy woman attacked an innocent child for no reason!» he said. In the video, she is seen approaching the boy from behind and sticking out her leg, causing him to trip and fall. She then walks away before she is stopped by the boy's father. The Stomp contributor's footage also included photos of the woman holding a Toys 'R' Us wrapped package while being confronted. H told Stomp the CCTV footage was provided by the manager of a bubble tea stall in the mall. «The family walked out from the nearby Toys 'R' Us when the woman walked behind them and suddenly kicked the young child at his calf, causing him to fall,» said John. «The child's father saw it and immediately stopped the woman who tried to deny it and wanted to escape.»

SINGAPORE – After entering Singapore on social visit passes, three Chinese nationals hatched plans to sell knock-offs of branded phones bought in China to victims here. All three were sentenced to jail after pleading guilty to one count of cheating each on May 2. Court documents did not say if the men knew one another or were working together. Li Jianxin, 41, arrived in Singapore on Feb 27. At around 6pm on March 20, he approached his victim near Liang Seah Street and offered to sell him an iPhone 15 Pro Max and a charging cable for $800. He also provided a forged receipt after he claimed that the phone was bought from an Apple store in Singapore for $1,600. After bargaining, the victim agreed to buy the phone from Li for $700. He later realised it was fake when comparing his phone with his colleague. Li was arrested on March 21 while trying to leave the country. Investigations revealed he had bought the knock-off phone for $200 in China, with the intention of selling it in Singapore. Li was sentenced to 10 weeks in jail. The prosecution said he had expressed an interest in making restitution to the victim.

Barely a year into his new job as an engineer, former army officer Robin Chua died last Sunday (April 28) after collapsing at work.  The 43-year-old, who was married with a four-year-old son, left the army in 2023 after 20 years to work at his family's electrical engineering company. His rank was lieutenant colonel.  Chua's sister told Shin Min Daily News that her brother fainted at about 2pm that day. A colleague performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him and was able to revive him.  Others around them called an ambulance to take Chua to the hospital. However, he fell unconscious enroute to the hospital and paramedics were unable to revive him. Chua was pronounced dead upon arrival. His family was told by doctors that his cause of death was cardiac arrest.  «He was a good son and brother. Family was always very important to him, and he would always be the first to help whenever there were problems at home,» said Chua's sister.  She added that their family did not have a history of heart disease, but her brother was a smoker.  Chua's sudden death also came as a shock to his former colleagues in the army. 

A counsellor at the Singapore Embassy in Japan who admitted to secretly filming a boy at a public bath in Tokyo, among other acts of voyeurism, is set to be asked to appear in a Japanese court, the Japanese media reported on May 2. The 55-year-old man, who has not been named, has since left the foreign service. A counsellor is a diplomatic rank for experienced foreign service officers. He was caught using a smartphone to film an undressed male teenager in the men's changing room of a public bath on Feb 27, Asahi Shimbun reported. A security camera at the bathhouse caught the Singaporean pointing his smartphone at another male customer, the Japanese daily reported. The incident was reported to the police by an employee of the bathhouse in Tokyo's Minato ward, where the Singapore embassy is located. The embassy told Asahi Shimbun on May 2 that the counsellor had already returned to Singapore. An embassy spokesman said the man had completed his mission and left Japan on April 12, adding that it was not aware about the filming incident. The embassy did not respond to The Straits Times when contacted.

Two men have been arrested and charged following a robbery case here involving valuables amounting to around $4.34 million.  The Malaysian nationals aged 28 and 32 were charged on Thursday (May 2) for the offence of armed gang robbery, said the Singapore Police Force (SPF) in a statement the same day. According to the statement, the police was alerted at about 2am on April 18 that a group of more than four men had robbed 11 victims between the ages of 25 and 45 at a King Albert Park residence. The group was alleged to have stolen an estimated $4.34 million in valuables, which included cash in both local and foreign currencies, cryptocurrency and luxury watches. The identities of the robbers were uncovered through ground enquiries by officers from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Clementi Police Division. Investigations also found that the group had fled to Malaysia soon after the police was alerted. With the help of the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP), two suspects were arrested in Malaysia on April 27 and 28. They were then handed over to the SPF on April 30.

As a sports coach, Kat Goh is probably used to an active lifestyle.  But a hit-and-run accident in March has now left her with serious injuries. And the culprit has yet to be found. Frustrated, her brother, Janus Goh, took to Facebook on April 25 to appeal for witnesses to the accident. He wrote: «[She] cannot perform her job and passion as a sports coach because of the incident and suffered multiple injuries that affected her ability to walk. She also suffered scarring on most parts of her body.» He also uploaded photos of his sister in the hospital, which showed her limbs bandaged up.  In his post, Goh said the accident took place on the TPE, near Ikea's Tampines store at about 2pm on March 26. 

A two-week operation by officers from the Central Police Division identified 12 suspects in an extortion scam which involved the use of manipulated obscene pictures. The seven men and five women, aged between 18 and 46, allegedly provided bank information and SIM cards acquired through illegal means, the police said in a statement on Wednesday (May 1). They are also suspected of assisting in unauthorised accessing of Singpass accounts. The suspects were allegedly given or promised commissions, preliminary investigations revealed. At least $115,000 in suspected criminal proceeds — some purportedly linked to other scam cases — were recovered and an array of electronic devices were seized during the operation. A 23-year-old woman is due to be charged in court on Thursday for facilitating unauthorised access to computer material, an offence that carries a jail term of up to two years, a fine, or both. Threatening letters with manipulated photos Over 170 reports involving extortionary letters have been made between March and April, said the police.

Photos of two car-sharing electric vehicles (EVs) that were left behind and parked randomly at different multistorey car parks surfaced on Facebook group SG Road Vigilante this week. In one post, an empty GetGo car is shown parked in front of an up-going ramp at a multistorey car park. The post, put up on Tuesday (April 29), stated that the photo was taken on April 26 but did not name the car park's location. A separate post on the same day shared photos of a BlueSG car parked, against the flow of traffic, right outside the exit of a multistorey car park in Tampines. GetGo and BlueSG are car-sharing platforms that allow users to rent out their vehicles at different rates. Those who use EVs must return their vehicles to designated charging stations.  BlueSG has only EVs for rental. Non-EVs rented from GetGo must be returned at the rental location. 'Anyhow park' or ran out of juice? Many netizens called out the driver of the GetGo car, accusing the person of being irresponsible and inconsiderate. «Yes, they anyhow park,» one commented. «Not their car so they don't care.»

Some enhancements will be made to the new on-board unit (OBU) for the ERP 2.0 system, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Thursday (May 2). This comes after feedback from drivers that placing the processing unit on the left passenger footwell made it difficult for them to reach for the Cepas card (such as Nets FlashPay card, Nets Motoring Card or EZ-Link Motoring Card). In its press release on Thursday, LTA said that since April 19 this year, they have introduced a button on the touchscreen display so that drivers can press on it and deactivate their Cepas card without removing it from the processing unit. This allows them to use their complimentary parking ticket at the car park. If the driver forgets to reactivate the card after leaving the car park, it will not affect their ERP payments as the correct amount will still be deducted from the card balance when the vehicle reaches an active ERP gantry. The installation of the OBU began with a group of early adopters in August 2023, and so far, more than 18,000 vehicles have installed the OBU, said LTA.

A Woodlands resident was concerned to see dozens of parcels left unattended at the void deck of Block 335 Woodlands Street 32 on April 11. Stomp contributor Doutono said she walked down to get some groceries at about 10am when she saw the parcels scattered around the void deck. She added that several of the parcels appeared to be from Shopee sellers. «I felt that it was very dangerous for them to leave parcels like that as they may get stolen,» the Stomp contributor said. «Even after I came back from my grocery shopping, the parcels were left exactly how it was. »I just wanted to highlight this so the delivery companies will be able to prevent such cases in the future." This is not the first time passers-by have expressed concern over delivery parcels left unattended at HDB void decks. In January, another Woodlands resident called the police after seeing two dozen parcels strewn next to a Pick parcel delivery locker. ALSO READ: Parcels found strewn in void deck, police called

She called it the worst hotel in the world. Stomp contributor Jojo, who is from Hong Kong, had such a bad experience at D'Resort @ Downtown East that she does not want to come to Singapore any more. «No water and no power for the whole night,» alleged the Stomp contributor. «No refund. No apology. Only poor hospitality.» She recounted: «When l checked in at night on April 1, the staff told me there would be no power from 2am to 5am because of an annual check. »The staff knew my worries and told me the shutdown would not last for such long time, not exactly for three hours from 2 to 5am. Maybe around 15 to 20 minutes. No worries. l thought a few minutes was acceptable. It was too late and expensive to change hotel." The Stomp contributor shared a photo of a notice informing guests of the power interruptions but claimed she was not informed about the lack of water.