SHOALWATER BAY, Australia - The expansion of the Shoalwater Bay Training Area (SWBTA) in Queensland has been completed after eight years of development. With the expanded training area now five times the size of Singapore, this means that the scale and complexity of overseas exercises involving the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) can be increased in the future, Senior Minister of State for Defence Heng Chee How said on Wednesday (Nov 13). Heng was speaking to reporters after witnessing Singaporean and Australian soldiers being put through their paces during a simulated beach landing as part of Exercise Trident. He also flew on a CH-47F chinook to view the new facilities within the expanded SWBTA and interacted with SAF and the Australian Defence Force (ADF) soldiers who participated in the bilateral exercise. Jointly developed by Australia and Singapore since 2016, the expansion of the overall training area was set out in a treaty between the two countries in 2020. State-of-the-art facilities such as the combined arms air-land ranges and urban operations live-firing facilities have been included in the expansion.

The body of a 52-year-old man was discovered in his Toa Payoh flat last Sunday (Nov 10), several days after his death. The police told AsiaOne they were alerted to the case at 11.15am on Sunday, where they pronounced the man dead at the scene. It is not known when he died.  The man, Bai Zongren (transliteration), had been living alone in his unit at Block 157 Toa Payoh Lorong 1 for several years after divorcing his wife, according to a neighbour who spoke to Shin Min Daily News. He also had a daughter, who moved out with his ex-wife after they split.  The neighbour, who did not want to be named, added that Bai would occasionally get visits from relatives. «His mother used to live on the fifth floor, but she died a few years ago.»  The neighbour told Shin Min that she was unaware of Bai's death when she passed by his unit several days ago. As Bai's door was locked, she assumed the flat was empty.  When she passed by his unit again on Saturday, she detected a foul smell but thought that it was from wastewater. She said she only found out about his death when she saw the police at his door.

After their rental agreement with a sublessor fell through, a couple asked for their deposit to be returned. They waited three weeks to no avail and decided to visit the sublessor's home for discussions. But the negotiations turned physical, with the woman brandishing a knife at the couple after she was attacked. The incident occurred at about 7pm last Sunday (Nov 10) at a condominium in Yishun, reported Shin Min Daily News. Chen, 41, said he had seen an advertisement for the four-bedroom unit on Oct 13 and contacted the poster, who said she had rented the apartment from the original tenant. The woman told Chen she could sublet the unit to him and his wife if the homeowner was agreeable to it.  After viewing pictures and videos of the apartment, the man immediately made a PayNow transfer of $1,000 to the woman as deposit. The couple viewed the unit the next day, where both parties discussed the rental agreement in detail. A week later, however, the woman told them that she had not gotten the approval of the condo owner to sublet the apartment.

SINGAPORE — Pupils who sat the PSLE will receive their results from 11am on Nov 20. The Education Ministry and Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board, in a joint statement on Nov 13, said arrangements have been made for pupils to collect their results. Pupils will get details on collection arrangements from their schools, it added. Those who are unable to collect their results from school in person can appoint someone to do so on their behalf on Nov 22. Eligible pupils will receive the Secondary 1 (S1) Option Form to select secondary schools with their PSLE results. Pupils are required to use their unique S1 personal identification number found on the top-right hand corner of the form to log in to the S1 Internet System to submit their school choices from 11.30am on Nov 20 to 3pm on Nov 26. Parents who need help with the online submission can contact the primary school before 3pm on Nov 26. Posting results will be released between Dec 18 and Dec 20 through SMS, the statement said. This information can also be accessed through the S1 Internet System or at the pupil's primary school.

Fugitive lawyer Charles Yeo, who is in custody in the UK, is currently awaiting an extradition hearing, reported CNA on Tuesday (Nov 12).  A court date for the extradition hearing has not been determined, but Yeo is set to attend a bail hearing on Friday, according to the report. In an Instagram post on Nov 1, the former chairman of the Reform Party said the Singapore government had made a formal request for his extradition. In his post, Yeo also said that he will be presenting himself, together with his legal team, at Westminster Magistrates Court on Nov 11. Yeo left Singapore in July 2022 after being charged earlier that year with multiple offences relating to harassment and wounding the religious feelings of Christians in several social media posts. In August 2022, a warrant of arrest was issued against him for breaching the conditions for overseas travel while on bail. 

12 men and three women, aged between 19 and 63, were arrested for various offences during a multi-agency enforcement operation against errant public entertainment outlets on Friday (Nov 8) night. The offences include working without a valid work permit, suspected drink driving, driving without a valid license and insurance, suspected consumption and possession of controlled drugs, and the possession of scheduled weapons.  Members of the media, including AsiaOne, were invited to observe the enforcement operations, led by Bedok Police Division, in Joo Chiat on Friday night.  The enforcement operation is part of their ongoing efforts to clamp down on illicit activities and regulatory offences in the area, said the police in a statement on Wednesday. Upon arriving at the scene just after midnight on Saturday, members of the media were led to the second floor of the first KTV outlet. 

A grand prize of $10 million is up for grabs at the upcoming Toto draw on Thursday (Nov 14) at 9.30pm. The Group 1 prize money has snowballed over the past three draws after no Group 1 winners were picked. According to Singapore Pools' website, the prize started at $1.2 million on Nov 4 before snowballing to $2.9 million on Nov 7 and $6 million on Nov 11. The last draw on Monday yielded three Group 2 winners who won $215,010 each. Tomorrow's draw will be a cascade draw, meaning that the prize money will be split between the Group 2 winners in the event that no Group 1 winner is chosen. If there are no Group 2 winners, the prize will be split among the Group 3 winners, and so on. The last time a Group 1 prize snowballed above $10 million was during the October 21 draw where two lucky winners bagged over $6.6 million each.

SINGAPORE - When an online retailer began selling his products on e-commerce platform Qoo10 in August 2023, he did not bat an eyelid when it took 30 to 45 days for the platform to disburse his first payout, compared with about three to seven days for other e-commerce sites he was using. But nearly a year later in July, payments owed to his business by Qoo10 had ballooned to about $1.6 million, as the platform’s payment delays exceeded two months and disbursements began trickling in, in smaller amounts. The Singaporean, who wanted to be known only as Mr T and did not wish to divulge what he sold, pulled the plug on his Qoo10 shop this year in the middle of July, and filed a civil claim with the courts. He obtained a default judgment in October for Qoo10 to pay him what he is owed, after the e-commerce site failed to serve a notice of intention to contest or not contest the claim. Mr T, who added that he had borrowed nearly $1 million from banks, friends and relatives to pay his suppliers, said: “I am not holding out hope that I will get much, or any, of my money back from Qoo10... By this point, I just want closure because it’s been so stressful.”

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) reported a 42 per cent fall in its half-year profit on Wednesday (Nov 13), as the firm was hurt by the absense of S$1.2 billion it had logged through the divestiture of Telkomsel shares in its prior corresponding period. Last year, Telkomsel, the Indonesian associate of Southeast Asia's largest telecom firm, agreed to merge with its parent's IndiHome broadband arm in an effort to expand into Indonesia's fixed broadband market. SingTel's Australian unit Optus, currently embroiled in a legal battle with the country's competition watchdog, reported operating revenue of A$4.02 billion (S$3.51 billion) during the six months, in line with A$4.02 billion reported a year ago. «Optus and NCS drove the positive momentum, underscoring our focus on execution and operating rigour,» the group's Chief Executive Officer Yuen Kuan Moon said. Southeast Asia's largest telecom firm said net profit for the six months ended Sept. 30 was S$1.23 billion, as compared to S$2.14 billion last year and missing a Visible Alpha estimate of S$1.37 billion.

The Community Disputes Resolution Tribunals (CDRT) will be able to mandate mental health treatment for those who cause unreasonable interferences in the community if a bill to amend the Community Disputes Resolution Act (CDRA) goes through.  The bill was proposed in Parliament by Minister for Community, Culture and Youth Edwin Tong on Tuesday (Nov 12). The CDRT currently hears disputes under CDRA between neighbours involving acts of unreasonable interference with the enjoyment or use of places of residence. Under the bill, the tribunal will be able to issue Mandatory Treatment Orders (MTO) should there be a belief that the acts of disturbance stem from an underlying psychiatric condition. «In those cases, the issue therefore is not just a disamenity one,» Minister Tong said. «Hence, the MTO is intended to address the root cause of certain acts that a resident may engage in.» Tong added that their priority remains in persuading the resident to go for treatment voluntarily, and that the CDRT-issued MTO is a measure of last resort. There are also criteria that must be met for the MTO to be issued.

SINGAPORE – The police are investigating deepfake nude photos of Singapore Sports School (SSP) students that were created and spread by other students. In response to queries from The Straits Times, school principal Ong Kim Soon said SSP is “aware of the incident involving the creation and sharing of deepfake photos by our student-athletes”. “The school does not condone such harmful behaviour,” he said, adding that it has launched an investigation and lodged a police report. The police, in response to queries from ST, confirmed that a report was lodged and investigations are ongoing. A reader who identified himself as a parent of a victim had alerted ST in an e-mail on Nov 12 about the deepfake nude images that were being circulated. “Many parents of affected female students in Singapore Sports School are making police reports about deepfake nude photos of their daughters generated by male students from the school,” the parent said. When contacted, the parent said that female teachers were also targeted, and that the school has offered affected students counselling.

As a group of friends circled a hearse, chants were heard. Then, they stopped and bowed to the portrait displayed at the front of the vehicle. This was not a typical Buddhist funeral, but rather the unconventional birthday celebration of a funeral director, reported Shin Min Daily News. According to the Chinese evening daily, a video circulating online showed the friends chanting a birthday song. The hearse's interior had been decorated with balloons and a birthday banner, with the man even laying inside for photos. The clip garnered criticism from netizens, with some deeming it overboard and disrespectful to the funeral industry. In an interview with Shin Min, director of Xin An Funeral Services Chen Weisong (transliteration) explained that he had celebrated his birthday at the company's premises with his friends and family last week. Halfway through the performances by singers, his employees and business partners had surprised him with the birthday-themed hearse bearing his portrait. Chen told 8world he was not angry and did not think it was taboo. «I was too embarrassed to turn down their gesture,» he said. 

The police are on the search for a driver who fled the scene after crashing their rental car last Saturday (Nov 9). The incident occurred at around 1.55am and involved a GetGo rental car that had driven through a road divider at Bedok Reservoir Road. In a video provided to Shin Min Daily News, the car is severely damaged with a broken windshield and liquid leaking onto the road. A part of the divider can be seen embedded in its bonnet. An eyewitness, surnamed Huang, was on the way to open his hawker stall at 1.45am when he drove past the scene. «I saw a car rushing towards the road divider. My car also drove over some metal objects which made crackling sounds, which I later found out were broken pieces of the road divider,» Huang said when speaking to Shin Min. He stopped his car along the roadside and got out to investigate but didn't see a driver in the GetGo car. Police looking for driver In response to AsiaOne's queries, the police said that the GetGo car «was believed to have self-skidded along Bedok Reservoir Road». The police were unable to locate the GetGo driver upon arrival at the scene. 

Errant employers who are found to have carried out more severe discriminatory practices may be fined or face legal consequences under a proposed workplace fairness law. The Workplace Fairness Bill, which was introduced in Parliament on Tuesday (Nov 12), will allow the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to take a range of actions against the company and/or person responsible for their discriminatory practices if passed. For example, job advertisements seeking preferential characteristics in candidates may be classed as lower severity. In such cases, MOM can give directions to employers to rectify the breaches and prevent future recurrence, said MOM in a press statement.  In moderately severe cases such as when firms fail to rectify earlier identified breaches, the ministry may then impose financial penalties. And in the most severe cases such as when it is found there was a clear intention to discriminate, MOM can take legal action against the errant employer by recommending the Courts to impose higher quantum financial penalties.