A total of 14 Indian nationals, aged between 19 and 44, were arrested on Tuesday (March 3) for alleged immigration offences following an enforcement operation in Hougang. In a news release on Wednesday, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said the suspects who were rounded up comprised 13 overstayers and one harbourer. The alleged overstayers — 11 men and two women — are purported to have remained in Singapore after their visit passes had expired. Meanwhile, the suspected harbourer — a 26-year-old man — allegedly provided the 13 overstayers with lodging. The offence of overstaying carries a penalty of up to six months' jail, along with caning of at least three strokes or a fine of up to $6,000. Overstayers will also be deported and barred from re-entering Singapore after their sentencing and/or payment of fines. Meanwhile, anyone found guilty of recklessly or knowingly harbouring overstayers and/or illegal immigrants faces a jail term of between six months and two years, along with a fine of up to $6,000.

Two truck drivers were taken to separate hospitals after an accident involving their trucks along Jurong Island Highway on Tuesday (March 3) afternoon. Videos posted on social media show debris and broken tree branches strewn across two of four lanes of the highway. The trucks, a trailer and a waste collection truck operated by Stream Environment, were stopped across three lanes of the highway. In response to AsiaOne's queries, the police and SCDF said they were alerted to the accident at about 2pm, adding that the two 41-year-old male truck drivers were conveyed conscious to National University Hospital and Ng Teng Fong General Hospital. A SCDF spokesperson told AsiaOne that the trailer driver was trapped in his seat and had to be rescued by officers using hydraulic equipment.AsiaOne understands that the 41-year-old trailer driver is assisting with police investigations, which are ongoing.[[nid:730685]]editor@asiaone.com 

A 60-year-old man has been arrested for his suspected involvement in a case of housebreaking at a landed home in Paya Lebar.The alleged crime took place at about 9.12pm on Feb 28 at a house in How Sun Estate.Checks by AsiaOne indicate that the estate is a freehold landed housing enclave.Police said the man allegedly broke into the unit and stole cash amounting to $400 and a luxury watch valued at $38,900. The watch has since been recovered and seized as a case exhibit. The 60-year-old suspect was identified and arrested by officers from Ang Mo Kio Police Division on Tuesday (March 3) through ground enquiries and with the aid of police cameras and closed-circuit television footage.He will be charged in court on Thursday with housebreaking.If found guilty, he faces up to 10 years' jail and a fine.[[nid:730747]]editor@asiaone.com 

The police have disrupted more than 300 scam attempts during a two-month-long operation which ended on Feb 28, preventing potential losses of over $24 million.In a news release on Wednesday (March 4), the police said they partnered with five banks — DBS, GXS, OCBC, Standard Chartered Bank, and UOB — for the operation which began on New Year's Day (Jan 1).Calling it an «innovative system», the police said the use robotic process automation (RPA) allowed rapid information exchange between the police's Anti-Scam Centre (ASC) and partnering banks, thereby enabling quick identification of potential victims and timely intervention to safeguard the potential victims' finances.RPA is the technology that enables computer software to emulate and integrate actions typically performed by humans interacting with digital systems. The use of RPA has enabled the police to automate information sharing and processing, and the mass distribution of SMS alerts. 

For the first time in 40 years, new public housing flats will be built on Pearl's Hill in Outram. At over 60 storeys high and comprising around 1,700 units, the Build-To-Order (BTO) project will be the tallest public housing development in Singapore upon completion, said National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat in Parliament on Wednesday (March 4).The project will surpass The Pinnacle@Duxton, which currently holds the record as Singapore's tallest public residential complex, by more than 10 storeys.Chee said that building taller HDB flats «where possible» is part of his ministry's plans to find more ways to build more public housing by «intensifying» land usage.This comes after the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore in August last year updated its rules in line with how tall buildings and structures can be near airports, paving the way for residential developments to be taller by up to 15 storeys.«A 60-storey block can provide 50 per cent more flats compared to a 40-storey block, the height of most of our tallest HDB blocks today,» said Chee in a speech laying out his ministry's spending plans in the coming year.

HDB will introduce longer rent-free periods for coffee shops and supermarkets, along with bus services that start when residents collect their keys, as it seeks to reduce the inconvenience of those who move into new large-scale BTO estates. This was announced by Senior Minister of State for National Development Sun Xueling during her ministry’s budget debate in Parliament on Wednesday (March 4).She said a multi-agency committee, led by the Ministry of National Development (MND) and HDB, identified five areas to support residents moving into new large-scale BTO estates of more than 3,000 flats.These are: access to transport, cooked food and groceries, childcare services, sheltered linkedways and waste-management.Set up in mid-2024, the BTO Coordination Committee includes the Land Transport Authority, the National Environment Agency, the Early Childhood Development Agency, the Infocomm Media Development Authority and the People’s Association.«Every estate is different and there can be project-specific issues that cause some variation,» said SMS Sun.

The Ministry of National Development (MND) will study and review ways to better support housing options for singles, said Minister Chee Hong Tat at the ministry's Committee of Supply debate in Parliament on Wednesday (March 4).He pointed to the 2-room Flexi flats application rates for singles and seniors to explain why a robust supply is needed.«To do more for our singles and other groups of flat buyers, we will need to build more flats to ensure adequate supply,» Chee said.In the February 2026 Built-To-Order (BTO) sales exercise, the median application rate for first-timer was 6.7, with Tampines Nova and Redhill Peaks seeing applications above the median rate.

SINGAPORE — The High Court on March 4 allowed an appeal by Lim Oon Kuin, the 84-year-old founder of failed oil trading company Hin Leong, and imposed a term of 13.5 years.This means a shaving of four years off his original sentence.Justice Hoo Sheau Peng said the original jail term of 17.5 years' jail was «crushing» even with the usual one-third remission.Lim, who is better known as O.K. Lim, was sentenced in November 2024 for two counts of cheating and one count of abetting forgery, in what prosecutors described as «one of the most serious cases of trade financing fraud that has ever been prosecuted in Singapore».After a lengthy district court trial, he was found to have duped HSBC into disbursing US$111.6 million (S$143 million) to Hin Leong based on two fabricated oil sale contracts.He was also found to have instructed a former employee to forge documents for one of the bogus contracts.On March 4, Justice Hoo found that the district judge who sentenced Lim erred in according weight to the prosecution's arguments that Lim's offences had undermined public confidence in the oil sector.

As a country heavily reliant on imports, Singapore is particularly vulnerable to external shocks and supply chain disruptions.This vulnerability in the face of rising global uncertainties can, in turn, affect Singapore's survival, said Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Zaqy Mohamad. SMS Zaqy, who is also Senior Minister of State for Defence, set out how Singapore intends to build options and flexibility to deal with different scenarios of disruption at the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment's (MSE) Committee of Supply debate on Wednesday (March 4).Citing disruptions during Covid-19 and Malaysia's ban on the export of live chickens in 2022, the senior minister of state cautioned that tiding through disruptions will become more challenging."We also need to manage our risks from animal disease, which add to further pressure on global food supply and prices.

The engine compartment of a Suzuki hatchback caught fire along Kaki Bukit Avenue 4 on Tuesday (March 3). A video of the incident posted in a motoring chatgroup shows flames and thick black smoke rising from the car's engine compartment.Based on the video, it is a Suzuki Swift hatchback, which is not an electric vehicle.In response to AsiaOne's queries, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the incident at about 3pm.The fire was extinguished using a hose reel, SCDF added.No injuries were reported and the cause of fire is under investigation.[[nid:730619]]editor@asiaone.com 

An overnight cycling race that took place at Seletar Mall in Sengkang last weekend has made quite a buzz on social media.While some expressed excitement over the Downmall Challenge — possibly the first of its kind in Singapore — others fretted over safety issues.On Sunday (March 1), Nasthasia Nadiah, who represented Singapore in cycling at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, shared a first-person view as she raced through the mall from level four to level one.In the clip of her practice run, she can be seen manoeuvring her YT Capra bike around traffic cones, going down escalators, and navigating tight corridors. At the finish line, she rode her bike up a ramp. The TikTok video, which has garnered over 570,000 views as of Tuesday, also attracted numerous comments.Some praised the event for being interesting, with one calling it «one of the coolest things in Singapore». Others hoped that bigger malls such as VivoCity and Suntec City would hold such events so cyclists can have larger race courses. Some expressed interest and asked how to participate in future editions of the event. 

SINGAPORE — Some restaurants and food and beverage outlets with dine-in services will not charge customers the 10-cent deposit when they order bottled or canned drinks from April 1, the day the Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS) kicks in.For other food shops, such as those in hawker centres and coffee shops, collection of these containers could be challenging due to the porous nature of the dining areas. There could be multiple drink stalls within the same area.In these cases, the beverages will be sold with the 10-cent deposit, said Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Janil Puthucheary on March 3, during the debate on his ministry's budget.Under the scheme administered by the National Environment Agency (NEA), customers will pay an additional 10 cents, which is a refundable deposit, for bottled and canned drinks ranging from 150ml to 3 litres.When containers bearing the «Deposit Mark» are returned at the reverse vending machine, customers can retrieve their deposits via their ez-link cards or their DBS PayLah! wallets. NEA is an agency under the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment.

As the intensifying effects of climate change become increasingly felt, Singapore will not be spared from the impacts and cannot afford to be «mere passive bystanders», said Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu. Fu, who is also Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations, set out the key tenets of Singapore's first national adaptation plan (NAP) to build a climate-ready nation at the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment's (MSE) Committee of Supply debate on Tuesday (March 3).Citing a 2024 World Economic Forum report, the minister warned that climate hazards are projected to cause economic loss of over a trillion dollars by 2050. «Disruptions in food production and water supplies may become frequent occurrences,» Fu said, adding that economic instability and geopolitical contestations such as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, will mean that the planet will face the impacts of climate change «more severely, and sooner».«We must prioritise building a climate-ready Singapore now,» she urged. 

For 39-year-old Sue Yang, safety had always been a given — until Iranian missile and drone attacks struck Dubai, where she has been based with her family for the past four years. Speaking to AsiaOne on Tuesday (March 3), Yang recounted the launch of attacks at the weekend. «I was at home with my family at that time. When it first happened, it caught my family and me off guard because we weren't expecting anything like that,» said the mother of one. «What was especially shocking was when we first heard the explosions (from the weapons and interceptors) — it was pretty terrifying because we didn't know what it was.»Yang shared that her 11-year-old son was initially worried, but she reassured him that everything would be fine. After coordinated offensive strikes by the US and Israel against Iran on Saturday (Feb 28), Tehran began retaliatory missile and drone attacks across the Gulf — including on the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where Dubai is located.

A man was arrested for drink driving after being found asleep at the wheel near Sim Lim Square.Photos of the incident were posted on Monday (March 2) to the Complaint Singapore Facebook group, showing a blue GetGo car parked across from Burlington Square.A man in a red shirt was seen being arrested by police officers, and an ambulance was seen parked nearby.In response to AsiaOne’s queries, the police said that received a call for assistance along Bencoolen Street at 10.10am the same day.Upon their arrival, officers observed that a man was sleeping at the driver's seat inside a stationary car. The driver, a 33-year-old male, was arrested for drink-driving. No injuries were reported and police investigations are ongoing.[[nid:730736]]dana.leong@asiaone.com 

The police have arrested three Singaporean men, aged between 32 and 53, in connection with ongoing investigations into transnational scam syndicate Prince Holding Group, its founder and chairman Chen Zhi, and his associates and related companies.Chen, the alleged head of a Cambodian-based scam empire, was extradited to China from Cambodia on Jan 7. He was shown cuffed at his wrists as he was escorted off a China Southern Airlines flight that day. In October 2025, the Singapore Police Force mounted islandwide enforcement operations against Chen and his associates, seizing or prohibiting the disposal of over $150 million in assets. No arrests were made at that time as Chen and his associates were not in Singapore.