Employers should reward employees with fair and sustainable wage increases, said the National Wages Council (NWC) on Thursday (Oct 10).  Companies that have done well should reward workers with built-in wage increases and variable payments commensurate with the firm's performance and employees' contributions, it added.  While employers who have not done well may exercise wage restraint, they should focus on improving business processes and productivity, especially by upskilling their employees.  The above are part of the NWC's recommendations for wage guidelines for the period from December 2024 to November 2025.  In a press conference on Thursday, NWC chairman Peter Seah said that NWC has adopted a more «positive tone» for this year's guidelines, while balancing caution and optimism.  «This is consistent with the NWC’s long-standing principle that wage growth should be in line with productivity growth,» he said.  The council's guidelines take into consideration the sustained productivity growth, as well as Singapore's improved economic outlook and expected moderate inflation.

SINGAPORE — Train commuters on a section of the East-West Line were delayed on Oct 10, after a train broke down near the Tiong Bahru station. A first-generation westbound Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) train had stalled at about 12.30pm, and all the passengers safely disembarked at the Outram Park station, SMRT said in a Facebook post on Oct 10. The operator said at 1.14pm that the fault was cleared, and train services were being restored. SMRT said at 1.14pm that the fault was cleared, and train services were being restored.  PHOTO: The Straits Times SMRT had said earlier on Facebook that commuters had to add 25 minutes to their travel time from Outram Park to Queenstown stations. They were also to add 20 minutes when travelling from Queenstown to Bugis stations. Free regular bus services were provided between the Outram Park and Queenstown stations.

«Can you feel our bus' aura coming from 10 miles away?» This question — posed by an SBS Transit employee in a TikTok video uploaded on Wednesday (Oct 9) — was answered with a resounding 'yes' from netizens, who awarded him with «infinite aura» points. For the uninitiated, «aura points» is a light-hearted way of determining a person's vibes and coolness. The one-minute clip continues with the two bus captains dishing out etiquette tips peppered with Gen Alpha slang and trending memes, such as the viral audio tracks of «mama a girl behind you» and «fein». «Imagine long bus rides and yap,» reads the text in the video.  It cuts back to the male bus captain, who says: «See how I don't sit at the priority seat? Such an alpha skibidi rizzler.» https://www.tiktok.com/@sbstransitcareers/video/7423729172717030664 The video has amassed over 100,000 views and 100 comments from amused netizens in less than a day. One TikTok user commented: «This is +1,000,000 aura advertising.» «I live for these videos. Slay SBS slay,» said another.

SINGAPORE — Punggol Coast MRT station, an extension from the existing Punggol station on the North East Line, will open for passenger service on Dec 10 at 3pm, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Oct 10. With this addition, Punggol Coast station will be the terminal station of the 22km North East Line, taking its total number of stations to 17. Located in the Punggol Digital District, the new station will improve transport connectivity for more than 28,000 employees in the JTC Business Park. It will also benefit some 12,000 students from the Singapore Institute of Technology's (SIT) Punggol campus as well as those visiting the upcoming Punggol Coast Mall, which is being completed in phases from September.

A Spanish couple are currently being investigated for protesting against Peter Lim, the Singaporean owner of Spanish football club Valencia. The police told AsiaOne on Thursday (Oct 10) that a police report was lodged against a 34-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman, both Spanish nationals, for allegedly taking part in a public assembly. The couple's passports have been impounded while investigations are ongoing, they said. Social media posts by the Spanish man, Dani Cuesta, on Oct 3 included photos showing him holding a sign that reads «Lim Go Home» and a video of him pasting stickers saying «Lim Out» at various locations in Singapore. These locations included Merlion Park, the Esplanade, as well as Abelia – an 11-storey condominium in Ardmore Park said to be owned by Lim. Cuesta's posts soon went viral, some garnering over 260,000 views, and he received mixed reactions from netizens. Some fellow fans of the football club praised his actions, calling him a «hero without a cape» and thanking him for voicing their frustrations. One netizen wrote: «He has gone where no one managed to go before.»

A day after Dr Lee Wei Ling's death, her younger brother has brought attention to the future of their family home. In a Facebook post on Thursday (Oct 10), Lee Hsien Yang wrote that he was conveying a message from his sister. «My father's, Lee Kuan Yew, and my mother's, Kwa Geok Choo, unwavering and deeply felt wish was for their house at 38 Oxley Road to be demolished upon the last parent's death. »Lee Kuan Yew had directed each of his three children to ensure that their parents' wish for demolition be fulfilled. He had also appealed directly to the people of Singapore. «Please honour my father by honouring his wish for his home to be demolished.» Dr Lee, who died at the age of 69 on Wednesday, was living in the house at 38 Oxley Road.

VIENTIANE, Laos — The test of Asean's unity lies in how the bloc deals with internal challenges such as the situation in Myanmar, as well as key regional issues, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Wednesday (Oct 9). This is even as the 10-member grouping faces an increasingly «troubled and turbulent» external environment, he said, addressing fellow Asean leaders at the 44th and 45th Asean Summits and related meetings held in Vientiane, Laos. PM Wong, who delivered three speeches on Oct 9, also urged Asean leaders to remain united in purpose despite its diverse grouping and member states' own positions on regional and global issues. The annual regional gathering is being held against the backdrop of increasing geopolitical tensions, as well as concerns over rising military conflict in the Middle East, maritime disputes in the South China Sea, the broader US-China rivalry, and the continued civil unrest in Myanmar since the 2021 military coup.

The body of Mr Harry Tan Eng Kwang, who died after he slipped and fell while hiking in the Everest region of Nepal about two weeks ago, arrived in Singapore on Oct 9. His family is holding a three-day wake at The Garden of Remembrance in Old Choa Chu Kang Road and the cremation will be held on Oct 12. Mr Tan, 76, reportedly went missing on Sept 26 near the 5,500m-high Kongma La Pass in Nepal, which is south of Everest Base Camp. His body was found on Oct 4 after a search-and-rescue operation that lasted more than a week. Speaking to The Straits Times at a packed funeral wake, his wife, Dr Jessie Png, said her prayers were answered when his body was found, as bad weather conditions had hampered rescue efforts.

Dr Lee Wei Ling's wake will be held at the Singapore Casket, said her younger brother Lee Hsien Yang in a Facebook post on Wednesday (Oct 9) evening.  The wake will be held from Thursday to Saturday, at the Pearl and Sapphire Hall on level 3 at Singapore Casket's premises on Lavender Street.  Visiting hours are from 2pm to 10pm on Thursday, 10am to 10pm on Friday, and 10am to 1pm on Saturday.  Dr Lee will be cremated at Mandai Crematorium at 2.45pm on Saturday, according to the National Environment Agency's records.  Her younger brother, however, will not be attending her wake and funeral in person. 

SINGAPORE - The upcoming Build-To-Order (BTO) sales exercise next week will have seven projects launched in the Standard category, seven more in Plus, and just one Prime BTO project, as the Housing Board rolls out a new system of classifying flats. It will mark the first time where BTO flats will be sorted according to these three categories. The new framework will replace the current system of classifying estates as either mature or non-mature. Explaining how BTO projects will be categorised under the new framework, National Development Minister Desmond Lee said on Oct 9 that HDB does so based on a project’s proximity to the city centre, transport connectivity and amenities. Prime and Plus flats, which are located closer to amenities such as MRT stations and town centres, will come with stricter resale conditions, such as a 10-year minimum occupation period (MOP) and a subsidy clawback. Standard flats will not have a subsidy recovery clause when they are sold, and will come with a 5-year MOP.

The Singapore Prison Service (SPS) said it has lodged a police report after a prison transport vehicle damaged the side mirror of a car in an accident. The vehicle was travelling along Simei Street 3 at about 9.20am on Tuesday (Oct 8). In a statement posted to Facebook on Wednesday afternoon, SPS said that inmates and escorting officers from the Changi Prison Complex onboard the vehicle were en-route to the Changi General Hospital (CGH) for the inmates' medical appointments. About 400 metres away from CGH, the right side of the SPS vehicle «made an impact» with the left side of a private car travelling on the next lane. Dashcam footage of the incident, recorded from the affected car, was uploaded to Facebook group SG Road Vigilante on Wednesday. The clip shows an item falling onto the road as the SPS vehicle drives by. The vehicle does not stop. According to the post, the car owner had heard a «knocking sound» and realised their left side mirror was «slightly damaged».

Amid the intermittent flashes of light and clicking of camera shutters, nine women sat around a coffee shop table, listening as police officers questioned them. Some hung their heads low, covering their faces with their hands or masks, while others appeared unperturbed, locking eyes with photographers around them. Holding clear Ziploc bags containing seized mobile phones and identification documents, a female officer instructed one woman to remove her face mask for identification — the latter refused, indicating that she had a cough. The officer chided her for delaying the process, warning that the longer they take, the longer they would have to deal with the uncomfortable situation they were in. This was the experience of some women on Monday (Oct 7) evening as the police conducted an operation at a coffee shop along Geylang Lorong 29. 33 women aged between 21 and 54 were arrested under the Women's Charter and Employment of Foreign Manpower Act for their suspected involvement in vice activities and illegal employment-related offences.

SINGAPORE — Marine fuel suppliers at Singapore, world's largest bunker hub, will be required to provide digital bunkering services and issue electronic bunker delivery notes starting April 1, 2025, Amy Khor, Singapore's senior minister of state for transport, said at the SIBCON 2024 conference. The move aims to streamline ship fuelling, or bunkering, processes by making data sharing between buyers and sellers more efficient and transparent, saving the industry close to 40,000 man-days per year and reducing the risk of fraud. The announced mandate followed pilot trials with various bunker suppliers since November 2023. Singapore will be the first port globally to implement digital bunkering at scale for all bunker operations, according to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.

Following the announcement of Dr Lee Wei Ling's death on Wednesday (Oct 9), former patients took to social media to express their condolences to her family and thank her for helping them.  Dr Lee was a paediatric neurologist specialising in epilepsy, and also the director of the National Neuroscience Institute from 2004 to 2014.  She died at home aged 69, four years after she was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative brain disease which affects physical movements, walking, balance and eye movements.  On social media, Dr Lee's former patients paid tribute to her, sharing how she had helped them in the past.  One of her former patients, who was diagnosed with slight dyslexia, wrote: «I remember her kindness and admired her positive energy. Thanks to her, I managed to get into the express stream at SJI.»  Another comment described Dr Lee as an «exceptional doctor». 

SINGAPORE — Dr Lee Wei Ling, the daughter of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, has died at the age of 69, four years after she was diagnosed with a rare, degenerative brain disease. Her death was disclosed by her younger brother Lee Hsien Yang in a Facebook post at 5.50am on Oct 9. Dr Lee, the second of three children, is also the sister of Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Writing on Facebook, SM Lee said his sister was a fighter, and her character remained unchanged throughout her life. «She was fiercely loyal to friends, sympathised instinctively with the underdog, and would mobilise actively to do something when she saw unfairness, or suspected wrongdoing,» he added. Dr Lee, a neurologist who headed the National Neuroscience Institute as director from 2004 to 2014, was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy in 2020. The condition affects physical movements, walking, balance and eye movements, and eventually swallowing, and can lead to serious complications such as pneumonia and choking.

SINGAPORE — ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, the San Francisco-based company synonymous with bringing generative artificial intelligence (AI) into the spotlight, will open its second office in Asia in Singapore later in 2024. The Singapore office — the company's fourth international branch — will focus on advancing regional collaboration, including work with national AI programme AI Singapore on generative AI models that are tuned to understand and reflect cultures and languages in Southeast Asia. OpenAI's expansion here signals the start-up's long-term plans to tap Singapore's growing pool of tech talent and deepen its roots in the region, acting as a hub for its Asia-Pacific (Apac) partners. CEO Sam Altman said in a statement on Tuesday (Oct 8): "Singapore, with its rich history of technology leadership, has emerged as a leader in AI, recognising its potential to solve some of society's hardest problems and advance economic prosperity.

SINGAPORE - The hotlines of the Singapore Civil Defence Force and police, as well as those of hospitals and banks, could not be reached on Oct 8 in an unprecedented islandwide disruption on Singtel's telecommunications network. The disruption lasted for more than three hours, before services progressively resumed between 6pm and 7pm. Netizens began submitting outage reports as early as 2pm on crowdsourced outage website Downdetector when they could not get through public service hotlines. At 3.18pm, there were 2,706 reports on Downdetector. In a Facebook post at around 4.20pm, the SCDF and police urged members of the public to use SMS instead. «Members of the public who are experiencing difficulties reaching us at 995 or 999 can SMS SCDF at 70995 or SPF at 70999 instead,» said the police. «The safety and well-being of the public is our top priority. We will provide updates as soon as more information becomes available.»

SINGAPORE — Businesses offering Singapore car owners help with applying for Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) tags are seeing more demand for their services, with Malaysia enforcing the requirement since Oct 1. These «skip the queue» services cover assistance to apply for the VEP online, amend personal details, deregister an existing permit and collect and install the radio frequency identification (RFID) tags at VEP collection centres in Johor and Singapore, customers and those offering such services told The Straits Times. It costs anywhere between $25 to $168 for such services, compared with the RM40 ($12.20) vehicle owners pay in total if they personally register for the permit via Malaysia's Road Transport Department (JPJ) website. JPJ on its website says that «representatives» are allowed to do the registrations on behalf of vehicle owners, as long as they «ensure that the information provided is true and accurate».

A Mustafa employee was injured after one of the department store's glass windows shattered early Tuesday (Oct 8) morning as a result of the suspected gas explosion along Syed Alwi Road.  The incident took place at about 1.30am, and caused the partial collapse of the two shophouses in Little India. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a Facebook update on Tuesday that preliminary findings indicate a likely build-up of flammable gas within 84 Syed Alwi Road (a restaurant) led to the blast and partial collapse of both units. Building Construction Authority (BCA) has also served a Dangerous Building Order and Closure Order to the respective owners of the two shophouse units to close off the buildings. 

SINGAPORE — Emergency hotlines operated by the police and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) were among public service hotlines that were disrupted on Oct 8 due to an issue with Singtel's landline phone service which affected thousands of users. Other public hotlines, including those operated by KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Changi General Hospital, and SimplyGo, also said on Facebook that their hotlines were disrupted. There were more than 2,500 reports as at 3.10pm on service outage website Downdetector. About 80 per cent of the reports cited issues with landline phones. Several netizens commented in Singtel's latest Facebook post that their office landlines were down. The SCDF and police are aware that the public are experiencing difficulties calling 995 and 999, said a statement by the defence force on its Facebook page at 4.22pm. «The safety and well-being of the public is our top priority. We will provide updates as soon as more information becomes available,» said the force.

SINGAPORE — South Korea and Singapore have agreed to embark on a strategic partnership next year, marking the 50th anniversary of their establishment of diplomatic relations, the city state's Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Tuesday (Oct 8). The two nations signed an extradition treaty and will look to deepen co-operation in fields such as artificial intelligence, defence and climate change, as well as upgrade their free trade pact. «The upgrade is not just a change in name; it also means more substantial co-operation,» Wong told a joint press conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who is on a state visit. Both countries have many attributes in common, Wong added. «We were both 'Asian Tigers' that successfully transformed our economies,» he said.

A secondary one pupil from Meridian Secondary School suffered a ruptured right eardrum after she was assaulted by her schoolmates. The incident occurred during the students’ lunch break on Oct 3, when an older female student asked to talk to the victim at the void deck of Block 541, Pasir Ris Street 51, which is near the school, reported Lianhe Zaobao. The girl arrived to find six people - four boys and two girls - waiting for her. Under the boys’ instructions, the two female students proceeded to beat and slap her for nearly 20 minutes. The beating only ended after a passer-by called the police, reported the Chinese morning daily. The victim’s father Zhou Yueliang (transliteration) told Zaobao that there were nine other bystanders at the scene. The 53-year-old taxi driver added that after passers-by called the police, his daughter was conveyed to KK Women's and Children's Hospital for treatment by Singapore Civil Defence Force personnel. He was informed of the incident by the police.

The durian season in Malaysia has ended — so why are the popular Musang King varieties still available on the streets of Singapore? It turns out that some of these thorny fruits originate from Thailand or the Philippines, but are branded as authentic Musang King durians to boost sales during the off-season, reported Shin Min Daily News. Most customers are tourists, with locals snubbing the taste of Thai and Philippine durians, the Chinese evening daily noted. A Shin Min reporter who visited Geylang's durian street in end-September found five stalls offering the Musang King, Black Gold, Black Thorn, Butter King and Green Skin varieties, with prices ranging from $32 to $48 per kilogram. When asked if their durians are from Thailand, one vendor kept mum, while another said they only sell authentic Malaysian durians. «If you want to eat Thai durians, go to Thailand,» one seller said. Durian wholesaler Chen Sizheng (transliteration) said the fruits he supplies to major supermarkets are named King of Kings. «They are not Musang King, so we cannot write [and sell as] Musang King,» he told Shin Min.

SINGAPORE - The fall from grace of S. Iswaran was spectacular – from a private plane ride and plush hotel room at the Four Seasons to a prison van and a straw mat for a bed in a single-man jail cell. It marked the end of a career in public service that saw him rise through the ranks in the administrative service before his entry into politics in 1997. Iswaran, 62, arrived at the State Courts on Oct 7 at about 3.30pm. He was alone apart from a male relative who declined to be identified. After handing over his identity card at Court 4A, he was led through a door used by convicts to the courthouse lock-up facility. He was then moved to the basement carpark, where a Singapore Prison Service (SPS) van was waiting to take him to Changi Prison to serve out his 12-month sentence.

SINGAPORE — Six people were injured after two shophouse units partially collapsed in Syed Alwi Road after a gas explosion in the early hours of Oct 8. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a Facebook post at about 7am that they were alerted at about 1.30am at 84 and 85 Syed Alwi Road. According to checks online, the former location houses Paakashala Singapore, a vegetarian Indian restaurant, while the latter, Nirja Mega Mart. The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) said in a Facebook post at around 9.30am it was alerted to a suspected gas explosion incident.

Enraged that his girlfriend had been molested, a truck driver and his colleagues retaliated by beating the alleged perpetrator, a forklift driver, with a metal rod.  The incident occurred at about 8pm along 1 Yuan Ching Road, near a parking lot behind SuperBowl Jurong, reported Shin Min Daily News.  An eyewitness surnamed Zhang told the Chinese daily he was having dinner in the vicinity when the fight occurred. He recounted that he saw a group of men attacking the victim with a metal road as he was heading to the toilet.  «In a state of panic, I yelled that I was a police officer, but they didn't stop hitting the man. I had no choice but to call the police,» recounted the 44-year-old car dealer.  When Shin Min arrived at the scene, four police cars were seen parked in the area.  A bloodstained fluorescent safety jacket was also spotted next to a rubbish bin outside a toilet near the scene.