SINGAPORE - Singaporean businessman David Yong has been charged with falsification of accounts in relation to a promissory note arrangement involving Evergreen Group Holdings. The 37-year-old chief executive of Evergreen Group Holdings, whose full name is Yong Khung Lin, was arrested on Thursday (Aug 1) and charged on Aug 3. He is accused of having the intention to defraud by abetting Jolene Low Mong Han to falsify papers belonging to Evergreen GH, formerly known as Evergreen Assets Management. Evergreen GH is one of the entities under Evergreen Group Holdings. A court document states that on or about Dec 16, 2021, Yong allegedly instigated Low to falsify a tax invoice dated Sept 1, 2021, from Evergreen Assets Management for purported bulk sales of household fittings and appliances to a person named Roy Teo. If convicted, Yong could be fined, or jailed for up to 10 years, or both, under Section 477A of the Penal Code.

Going cycling with friends is supposed to be a harmless and fun activity. But one group of cyclists ended up infuriating netizens online for seemingly not obeying safe cycling guidelines. Facebook group SG Road Vigilante posted a video on Thursday (Aug 1) showing a group of roughly 30 cyclists that had apparently failed to conform to guidelines for safe cycling on the road. According to the Facebook group, the incident occurred at West Cost Highway, in the early morning of Aug 1. Dashcam footage from a vehicle pausing at a red light showed a pedestrian crossing the road alone. There did not seem to be heavy traffic at the time. A pair of cyclists did not conform to the red light signal and whizzed past him. They were then followed by a contingent of cyclists, some braking and navigating their way around the pedestrian. There did not seem to be any contact between the cyclists and the pedestrian. Prior to this, a number of cyclists were spotted travelling down the second lane, tailgating a lorry in the process. The comments section were filled with netizens upset by the cyclists' actions.

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong thanked shuttler Loh Kean Yew for giving his best at the Paris Olympics.  Loh, 27, was knocked out of the quarter-finals after being defeated by Danish player and defending champion Viktor Axelsen at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena on Friday (Aug 2).  He also scraped his right hand early in the match and had to be taped up to stop the bleeding, according to CNA. In an Instagram post on Aug 3, PM Wong commended Loh, who is ranked No.12 in the world, for his performance in the Games.  «It takes courage, grit and determination to compete on the Olympic stage. [Loh] gave his best, and made us proud by reaching the quarter finals. His badminton journey continues to inspire us all,» Wong wrote.  https://www.instagram.com/p/C-MMQe6yzlk/ Loh is the first Singaporean to get into the Olympics badminton quarterfinals in two decades, after Ronald Susilo did so at the 2004 Games in Athens. 

SINGAPORE - Seven persons have been arrested and over US$40 million (S$53 million) recovered following a multi-national, multi-agency effort between the Singapore Police Force, Timor-Leste authorities and Interpol. In a statement on Aug 3, the SPF said it was the largest recovery in a case involving a business e-mail compromise scam. On July 15, an employee of a commodity firm in Singapore received an e-mail from a scammer posing as a supplier, asking him to transfer payment for some goods to a new bank account based in Timor-Leste. The employee did not realise that the 'i' in the supplier's original e-mail had been replaced with an «I». He transferred US$42.3 million to the scammer on July 19. He discovered the scam only after being informed by the firm's real supplier that it had not received the payment, said police. A police report was made on July 23. The SPF engaged Timor-Leste authorities and Interpol after receiving the police report. On July 24, the SPF's Anti-Scam Centre was alerted that a sum of US$39 million had been detected and frozen in the bank account maintained in Timor-Leste.

SINGAPORE - Several bullying incidents involving teens being slapped, punched and kicked at the ITE College Central campus are now under investigation. This comes after multiple videos of the incidents surfaced on various social media platforms on Aug 2. In videos posted on Facebook and seen by The Straits Times before they were taken down, a teenage boy is seen on his knees in a stairwell and surrounded by a group of about 10 other people. The boy is asked to kiss the shoes of a teenage girl, which he does. He is then asked to kiss the girl's bare feet instead. Someone is also heard yelling for the boy to «lick the ****ing shoe» as another teen suddenly kicks him in the head. Another teen then slaps him across the face. In another video, a teenage boy wearing a khaki shirt is seen standing at the bottom of a stairwell, with a group of about 20 students looking down at him from the stairs above. Another teenage boy wearing a cap is seen filming the scene and taunting the boy, asking him to «look up», referring to the crowd witnessing the moment. At least two other people are also seen filming the scene on their phones.

PARIS – Loh Kean Yew’s dream of delivering Singapore’s first Olympic badminton medal was dashed by his pal and defending champion Viktor Axelsen, who won 21-9, 21-17 at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena on Aug 2. The Danish world No. 2, who had a last-16 bye, will meet India’s 22nd-ranked Lakshya Sen on Aug 4 for a place in the final. It was an uphill task for Loh to begin with, as he had just two wins in their 10 previous meetings. But he was not helped by his own passivity and scrapped right knuckles as well as his 1.94m opponent’s incredible reach and imperious form as Axelsen barely made an unforced error. The world No. 12 will leave Paris with the consolation that he joins Ronald Susilo (men’s singles, Athens 2004) and Jiang Yanmei and Li Yujia (mixed doubles, Beijing 2008) as the only Singaporeans to have made it as far as the quarter-finals. In his Olympics debut in Tokyo in 2021, he was eliminated at the group stage.

PARIS – Singapore sprint queen Shanti Pereira kicked off her Paris Olympics campaign with the women’s 100m heats at the Stade de France on Aug 2, clocking 11.63sec to miss out on the semi-finals. Running in Lane 8 of the seventh heat at the 80,000-capacity stadium in the afternoon heat, Asian champion Pereira, who qualified based on her world ranking, finished seventh out of nine runners on the purple track. The 27-year-old eventually placed 55th out of 72 runners, and cried at the media mixed zone when asked about how her recent leg injury had halted her momentum. On her performance, she said: “Not great. We came into this 100m particularly to really prep for the 200m. Wish it was a better time. It is what it is.” The top three from each of the eight heats and the next three fastest qualifiers progress to the three semi-finals on Aug 3. Gambia’s Gina Bass Bittaye (11.01), Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji (11.05) and Belgian Delphine Nkansa (11.20) were the top three in Pereira’s heat.

SINGAPORE - Disbarred lawyer Ravi Madasamy was on Aug 2 sentenced to 14 weeks' jail and fined $5,500 for a string of offences he committed between 2021 and 2023. These include verbally insulting a saleswoman when she could not hear him during a conversation, slapping an acquaintance who wanted to greet him, and pushing over a restaurant waitress who asked if he wanted a drink. The former lawyer, also known as M. Ravi, also pushed a priest and hurled vulgarities at several people in a temple in South Bridge Road. The 55-year-old had pleaded guilty in July to six counts of voluntarily causing hurt and one count each for harassment, using criminal force, and causing public nuisance. In November 2021, Ravi was at a law firm in North Bridge Road, where he was practising law, when he threw a glass perfume bottle at a paralegal and strangled the man whom he blamed for not printing documents for a hearing. When the paralegal said he had asked another colleague to print the documents, Ravi threw a remote control at the other man.

SINGAPORE - A woman ordered her misbehaving six-year-old son to do a handstand before whipping him more than 100 times with a belt. She later made a false police report, claiming that her then boyfriend had abused the child. The woman, who pleaded guilty in August 2023 to one count of abusing her son, was sentenced to 13 months in jail on Aug 2. One count of giving false information to a police officer was considered during sentencing. The 33-year-old woman cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the boy's identity, At the time of the offences in May 2020, the victim lived with his mother, his siblings, half-siblings and step-siblings, as well as the mother's then boyfriend. Court documents did not state if the boyfriend fathered the victim. On May 11 that year, the woman decided to punish the boy at home, over acts that were not disclosed in court documents. She ordered him to do a handstand, but he could not maintain the posture. She then kicked and slapped the boy and hit him with a belt.

Olympic medal hopeful Loh Kean Yew's celebratory interaction with his parents after qualifying for the quarter-finals warmed the hearts of netizens. Pictures of Loh and his parents were posted on Team Singapore's Facebook page on Friday (Aug 2) and captioned: «Big heart for his biggest fans». One of the pictures showed Loh, 27, and his mother making hearts with their arms above their heads while looking at each other. The Olympic medal hopeful posed for a picture with his parents after securing his spot in the Badminton quarter-finals. PHOTO: Facebook/Team Singapore Other pictures captured the parents' proud looks as their son secured his place in the next round. Loh's father is seen waving to him with both parents sporting bright smiles. The family was also photographed posing in front of the Paris Olympics banner, once again with their arms above their heads in a heart shape.

PARIS – Loh Kean Yew loves a good chase and his hunt for a historic Olympic badminton medal for Singapore remains alive, after he beat China’s sixth-ranked Li Shifeng 23-21, 21-15 at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena on Aug 1. The victory sets up a tantalising quarter-final clash on Aug 2 against his good friend, defending champion and world No. 2 Viktor Axelsen, who received a last-16 bye. The Dane leads 8-2 in their head-to-head, but the underdog tag suits world No. 12 Loh just fine. He laughed as he told The Straits Times: “Yup, I enjoy the chase because the pressure is on him, not me. He has an extra day’s rest and he wants to defend his title. I’m just going to enjoy and give my best.” He had the same mentality against Li. The 27-year-old had lost his previous two encounters against Li, 24, but was able to produce the goods to extend his head-to-head advantage to 5-2 when he needed it most. While Axelsen was watching the match from the comforts of his room after celebrating his wife’s birthday, Loh was slogging.

PARIS – She lifted her collar over her face and sobbed at the mixed zone. Just moments ago, Singapore badminton player Yeo Jia Min was involved in a heart-stopping and heart-wrenching 11-21, 21-14, 24-22 defeat by Japan’s world No. 10 Aya Ohori. In the delicately poised Paris 2024 Olympics women’s singles round-of-16 match, Yeo took her opponent, whom she had never taken a game off in three previous attempts, to a dramatic decider. After 55 minutes of fascinating rallies and unforced errors, it all came down to a 26-stroke rally that ended when she hit wide as both players simultaneously collapsed on the Porte de la Chapelle Arena floor. Three years of preparation, thousands of hours of training and scenario simulation, and it all came down to who could hold her nerve better. Something had to give, someone had to break down, and it was Yeo. The 25-year-old had come back from 0-3 and 13-15 down in the decider to earn a matchpoint.

SINGAPORE – Meal services on Singapore Airlines (SIA) flights will no longer be suspended automatically when the seat-belt sign lights up, unless pilots deem it necessary. The national carrier has reverted to standard in-flight procedures 10 weeks after a man died and dozens were injured on the turbulence-hit Flight SQ321. An SIA spokesperson told The Straits Times that the airline on Aug 1 ended a safety time-out that was imposed after the turbulence incident on May 21. This means hot beverages, including soup, will continue to not be served when the seat-belt sign is switched on, but the rest of the meal and drink service can carry on at the discretion of the crew. This was not the case under the tighter rules. Under the stricter protocols, cabin crew also had to take their seats and fasten their seat belts when the seat-belt sign was lit. Now, the pilots may ask cabin crew to return to their seats and suspend service, where necessary. The carrier said its pilots will continue to decide whether to suspend or continue with in-flight service, depending on their assessment of weather and operational conditions.

Minister for National Development Desmond Lee has ordered the Pofma Office to issue a correction direction to property agent Shaik Amar for the «false and misleading» statements regarding HDB's Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP) on Thursday (Aug 1).  In a video posted on his TikTok and lnstagram accounts on July 24 and YouTube on July 25, Shaik claimed that the EIP causes significant financial detriment to minorities when they sell their flats.  In his video, Shaik, who goes by 'thatproperty.guy' on social media, used the example of his Malay neighbour, who lives in a five-room flat at SkyOasis@Dawson, a SERS HDB block known for million-dollar transactions. He claimed that his neighbour would not be able to sell his flat at such high prices due to the limited pool of buyers as a result of the EIP, which he deemed an outdated policy.  An ethnic minority flat owner would have to «give close to a half a million (dollar) discount to sell their house,» he said.