The woman who was stabbed to death in Hougang on Tuesday (Dec 10) has been identified as 34-year-old Vietnamese national Dao Thi Hong.  The mother of three moved to Singapore from Hanoi five years ago, reported The Straits Times.  She worked at the Quan Long Nippon Paint hardware store at Block 210 Hougang Street 21, where she was repeatedly stabbed by a 42-year-old man, who was an employee.  The attack happened at about 11am on Tuesday. According to witnesses, the woman was screaming and the man was brandishing a knife. Another employee at the store, a 26-year-old man, tried to intervene and was wounded.  Dao's friend, who gave her name as Sally, told The Straits Times she took leave on Wednesday to pay her respects to the deceased at a makeshift altar set up behind the store.  «I came to light a candle and pay respects to her,» said the woman. "I wanted to stay here and accompany her for a while. It’s better for her.”

From Dec 16, travellers arriving or departing Singapore by bus will be able to clear immigration without their passports. QR code clearance will be rolled out progressively at all automated lanes and special assistance lanes at the bus halls of Tuas and Woodlands checkpoints, said the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) in a media release on Wednesday (Dec 11). The implementation of the passport-less clearance system, which will start at Tuas Checkpoint, is targeted to be completed at both checkpoints by mid-January 2025. This follows trials that were conducted at selected lanes of the checkpoints' bus halls in end-November. The trials recorded over 48,000 travellers as of Dec 1. Feedback collected from these travellers enabled ICA to fine-tune and improve the QR code clearance experience, the authority said.

Several residents in Jurong West are at their wits' end over a man who has been pouring what was believed to be urine outside their flats. Huang, who lives at Block 823 Jurong West Street 81, told Shin Min Daily News that his neighbour, who is in his 60s, has been behaving strangely for years. The 52-year-old engineer said that he lodged a police report on Nov 26 after two other neighbours found traces of urine-like liquid along the common corridor. On Dec 3, Huang called the cops again after detecting traces of the liquid in the corridor outside his unit as well as the clothes he had hung out to dry. «I saw a figure flash by, but no one answered the door when the police arrived,» said Huang. «He lives on the other end of the corridor and I heard he had received warnings from the authorities before.» Several residents living on the floors below the man's flat also said that they found the foul-smelling liquid along their corridors. Some of them lodged a police report and alerted the town council.

A Singaporean woman died in a motorcycle crash along the North-South Expressway in Malaysia on Tuesday (Dec 10).  The accident occurred along the southbound expressway near Sedenak in Johor at about 9.15am, according to the New Straits Times.  The 21-year-old was riding pillion to her 23-year-old boyfriend, who is also Singaporean, on a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10. The couple was reportedly making their way back to Singapore from Kuala Lumpur when «the motorcyclist lost control of his vehicle, skidded and hit the steel road divider,» said Kulai District police chief Tan Seng Lee told Malaysian media.  The woman sustained severe head injuries and died on the spot while her boyfriend sustained leg injuries, according to the police. Both victims were taken to Temenggong Seri Maharaja Tun Ibrahim Kulai Hospital.

How did this happen? A woman placed a package outside her door to be collected by the delivery driver, but he took something else instead «I want share a very bizarre incident that happened to me,» said Stomp contributor Joan, who has an online business and relies on a delivery company to ship orders to her customers. «As I have multiple orders daily, for the sake of convenience of not having to keep opening the door and cause my dogs to bark, I would always place the package outside and leave a delivery note for the driver, informing them that the package is near the gate with the address of the recipient. »So just take and go, as I've already made payment in the app through credit.« On Nov 21, she did her usual and took her dog for a walk. PHOTO: Stomp »One hour after I had placed the order, I noticed that the package was still there, but my CCTV camera was missing," recounted the Stomp contributor.

SINGAPORE — Former Singapore Idol judge Ken Lim, 60, was acquitted on Dec 11 of insulting a woman's modesty over an incident which happened more than 12 years ago. Lim was then the executive director of record label Hype Records. After a trial, District Judge Wong Peck found him not guilty of uttering sexually inappropriate words to the woman, 25 at Hype Records' premises in Henderson Road on July 25, 2012. Details about her cannot be disclosed due to a gag order. During the trial, the woman, who is now a singer-songwriter based overseas, accused Lim asking her if she was a virgin. He was also accused of uttering the words: «What if I have sex with you right now.» Lim currently faces six other charges allegedly involving four more women. He is alleged to have insulted the modesty of three of them, and is accused of molesting a woman at the Hype Records office in Henderson Road on Nov 23, 2021. The cases will be dealt with at a later date.

SINGAPORE — Pet owners and eateries have welcomed the recent move allowing patrons to dine outdoors with their furry companions without the need for a pet cafe licence, even as some seek more clarity on the new rules. A spokesperson for waterfront cafe Whisk & Paddle told The Straits Times that in the past, it had to turn away customers with pets as it was not licensed to accommodate them. «This caused disappointment among potential customers, especially since we are located along the Punggol Park connector,» the spokesperson said. The park connector is frequented by dog owners. From Jan 1, such pet-friendly eateries with outdoor dining areas will no longer need to worry about seeking additional approval from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), if they are not serving pet food. Since SFA's announcement on Dec 2, Whisk & Paddle has started sourcing for pet-only chairs, which will allow dogs to be seated. The Tebing Lane eatery is also looking to get disposable pet water bowls.

A 42-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly murdering a 34-year-old woman in Kovan on Tuesday (Dec 10). The police and the Singapore Civil Defence Force told AsiaOne they received a call for assistance at Block 210 Hougang Street 21 at about 11.05am. Police officers found the woman and a 26-year-old man with stab wounds at the location.  Both were taken to hospital, where the woman subsequently died. The woman was stabbed multiple times at Quan Long Nippon Paint hardware store in Kovan, reported Lianhe Zaobao. Witnesses reportedly said that the older man was heard arguing with the woman, who works at the hardware store. The man then brandished a knife, causing people to scream and flee. The 26-year-old man reportedly working at the hardware store had tried to de-escalate the situation but was stabbed in the abdomen, reported Zaobao. 

She went to court but to no avail. A private tutor has resorted to engaging debt collectors to collect the $680 in tuition fees owed by a pupil's mother after filing a claim with the Small Claims Tribunal failed. Stomp contributor Joyce said she has been trying to get payment from the woman, whose name is Eunice, since the beginning of 2024. The Stomp contributor had tutored her daughter in English, Chinese, science and mathematics for PSLE at Eunice's parents' home in Hougang. «I went three times a week from 7pm to 10pm,» said the tutor. «Her daughter initially promised to pay but ended up backing out.» After filing the claim, the Stomp contributor went to Hougang to serve the court notice to Eunice. «She received the court notice after being called out of her room — she didn't come out initially — and denied knowing about the whole tuition, even though I had sent her the payment details which she had acknowledged and repeatedly patronised me that 'she'd pay' but never did,» recounted the Stomp contributor.

Punggol Coast MRT station has officially opened, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean announced in the station during its opening ceremony on Tuesday (Dec 10) - and it's just minutes away from Coney Island. The new MRT station, situated beneath the Punggol Digital District, opened for service at 3pm on Tuesday.  The new terminal station of the 22km North-East Line (NEL) is a 1.6km extension from the existing Punggol station, and will bring the total number of stations on the NEL to 17.  It is an approximately 10-minute walk away from Coney Island, which can be accessed by exiting the Punggol Digital District and walking down Punggol Way to enter the island via its west entrance. 

The spate of gloomy weather in the region has taken a hit on Singapore's durian supply. Durian sellers have speculated that the year end harvest is expected to be only half of last year's, reported Shin Min Daily News on Monday (Dec 9).  Huang Mingyi (transliteration), the owner of 211 House Of Durian in Toa Payoh told Shin Min that due to the bad weather, he received fewer durians from his supplier, which were also of poor quality.  In order to ensure the quality of his goods, he said he would rather delay sales by a week. Some sellers have also seen a delay in their year-end supply, also partly due to the inclement weather.  «It's hard to predict [these things], sometimes it depends on the weather, last year we received the durians in mid-November, this year we only got them in early December,» said Lin, an assistant at Wonderful Durian.  As for when the peak season will be, Lin said it depends on production levels at the end of the month. 

A Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon participant died on the last day of this year's event. The StanChart Singapore Marathon, which ran from Nov 29 to Dec 1, attracted over 55,000 runners — up from more than 44,000 in the 2023 edition.  At about 10am on Dec 1, TNP was informed that a participant was in serious need of medical assistance. It is unknown if the person mentioned by the medical personnel was the same one who died in hospital later. But that individual was not the only one who needed medical assistance. According to Associate Professor Kenneth Tan of Singapore General Hospital, 20 participants from the event needed medical attention at the hospital. «Our Emergency Department (ED) received 20 patients from the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon on Dec 1, the majority of whom were promptly treated for heat-related injuries,» said the head of Department of Emergency Medicine. The new route for the annual event apparently was tough on runners, even seasoned marathoners.

Century Square mall has taken down part of its Christmas decorations after a boy injured his finger while playing with it on Monday (Dec 9). The incident occurred on the first floor of the mall at Tampines. The boy was heard screaming while playing at the igloo installation, according to witnesses who spoke to 8world News. His fingers were also reportedly covered in blood. Speaking to AsiaOne, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) confirm that they received a call for assistance at around 3.30pm on Dec 9, and conveyed the boy to KK Women's and Children's Hospital for medical attention. Installation closed  A Century Square spokesperson told AsiaOne that help was immediately rendered to the boy after the incident and SCDF was alerted. They also said that the igloo installation has been dismantled «as a precautionary measure while investigations are ongoing». The installation will also be closed till further notice, according to an update posted to Century Square's Facebook page. «The safety and well-being of our visitors remain our utmost priority,» said the spokesperson.

More than double the number of cancer patients in Singapore die of the disease compared with those in Australia and the United States. In Asia, Singapore also fares worse than South Korea and Japan in terms of cancer survival rate. Doctors say factors such as age at diagnosis, screening take-up rates and access to care are among possible reasons for the lower survival rate here. A paper published by the Asia-Pacific Medical Technology Association (ApacMed) in June showed that 51 out of 100 cancer patients in Singapore die, compared with 24 in Australia, 25 in the US, 38 in South Korea and 41 in Japan. The paper suggests that countries with higher cancer mortality rates are the ones with lower use of next-generation sequencing (NGS), a test that identifies biomarkers in cancers that can be targeted with specific treatments, resulting in better outcomes. ApacMed, which represents manufacturers and suppliers of medical equipment, devices and in-vitro diagnostics, clearly has an interest in pushing for NGS.

Frustrated with a «tenant from hell», local property agent Sheila Phang took to TikTok to air her grievances and warn others. Phang, a senior associate director with PropNex, posted the video on Sunday (Dec 8), and it has already amassed over 25,000 views since. Introducing the video, she complains about taking «more than a week to revamp the unit» after that tenant allegedly left it in complete disarray. She pointed out in the comments section that the unit is at Riverbank @ Fernvale, a condo project located in Sengkang. In addition to leaving the unit in a mess, Phang also showcases some of the damages made to the refrigerator and the blinds. The metal fridge, for example, was left with multiple scratches and dents, while the blinds had been cut haphazardly. Phang also complains about the tenant being late on rental payments, which typically only came in «up to seven to 10 days» after their due date. «Boss bounce check lah, salary never receive, in Malaysia, not in Singapore, at work, no OTP [sic],» Phang points out, listing the various excuses given by the tenant for his late payments.

Regular train service on MRT’s East-West Line (EWL) will resume on Tuesday (Dec 10), from the start of passenger-service hours, after works to lay new tracks to connect the line to the upcoming East Coast Integrated Depot (ECID) were completed ahead of schedule. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) had initially planned for a four-day stoppage of services from Dec 7 to 10, affecting Tanah Merah, Simei, Tampines, Pasir Ris, Expo and Changi Airport stations. In a Facebook post this evening, LTA said that works have been completed ahead of schedule and passenger services would resume tomorrow. It added that comprehensive testing, including safety and ultrasonic tests on the tracks, power supply and train signalling systems, were also carried out.  Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat also posted on Facebook to thank public transport workers, while acknowledging commuters for their «patience and understanding».