SINGAPORE — Three teenagers who harassed a Singaporean couple who were taking videos in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung in Indonesia have apologised, putting an end to police investigations. The Indonesian police halted their probe into the case after the victim accepted an apology from the teens, CNN Indonesia reported on Sunday (Jan 5). «The victim has confirmed that she will not continue the legal process into the case as she saw the perpetrators had apologised on social media and thought this would serve as a lesson as the perpetrators are children,» said Bandung City police chief Budi Sartono, reported CNN Indonesia. The Jakarta Globe, citing the Indonesian police, said the teenagers were arrested on Jan 3, and have admitted to the Dec 29, 2024, encounter with the married couple. Two of the teenagers are reportedly minors, or under 17 years old. The Indonesian police on Jan 4 said one of the teenagers admitted to making inappropriate gestures and touching the woman, the report said. The other two have denied any involvement.

A man who recently found a lottery ticket with a $10,000 prize has handed it over to the police, hoping the owner will come claim it. On Dec 31, the man surnamed Wu was on board bus service 925 travelling towards Marsiling MRT station when he noticed three 4D tickets on a seat.  Wu noticed that one of the tickets had the winning number 6777 — the first prize of the Dec 29 draw. «I also buy 4D, so I'd pay special attention to the numbers drawn,» 70-year-old Wu told Shin Min Daily News.  "I remembered the first prize number of the day, that was how I realised the ticket had won a prize.” While he has a habit of picking up stray lottery tickets to look at them, but this is his first time finding a winning ticket. Wu said he wasn't able to identify the owner of the tickets that day as many passengers alighted the bus at the same time. Therefore, he handed the 4D ticket over to the police in Toa Payoh via the found property drop box on Jan 1.  Wu said he also made a report at a police station in Yew Tee on Jan 3, thinking that the owner might live near Marsiling.

SINGAPORE — A businessman and his former wife came up with a sham with the intention of reducing the value of his assets as he was going through a divorce with his current wife, a High Court judge has found. In August 2023, the former wife, Chiang Ai Ling, filed a $13.7 million lawsuit against Tan Kian Chye and his second wife, Ang Siew Yan. Ang had filed for divorce from Tan in December 2022. Chiang alleged that Tan had failed to pay her the sum in exchange for her transferring all her shares in his company to him. She claimed that he had orally agreed in 2015 to pay her 25 per cent of the proceeds from the sale of his company. Tan, who has a child with each woman, did not contest the lawsuit. But Ang contended that the purported 2015 agreement was a sham conceived by Chiang and Tan to reduce the assets liable for division in the ongoing divorce. In a written judgement issued on Dec 30, Justice Audrey Lim said the evidence showed that the purported agreement never existed and that the sham was conceived after Ang filed for divorce.

SINGAPORE – Lionesses forward Danelle Tan’s eagerly anticipated A-League Women debut lasted only about 20 minutes, but the drama and intensity have left her yearning for more. After missing Brisbane Roar’s first eight games of the season due to knee surgery, the 20-year-old Singaporean ran onto the Perry Park pitch to cheers from her father and many among the 3,612-strong crowd on Jan 4. Coming on for Evdokiya Popadinova in the 72nd minute, the No. 9 was involved in some attacking moves, and within seconds, she was celebrating with her teammates as Laini Freier opened the scoring against the visiting Canberra United with a neat finish into the bottom corner. But Emma Robers equalised in the 81st minute with a long-range effort before Michelle Heyman completed the comeback for Canberra seven minutes later despite suspicions of handball. With the defeat, the Roar missed the opportunity to leapfrog Melbourne City to the top of the 12-team league after nine games. On Jan 5, City extended their lead to four points after a 1-1 draw at bottom club Sydney FC, but have played a game more.

Extra-large eggs at the supermarket cost about $3 for six. But those sold at the back of trucks that drive into selected HDB carparks cost about $7 for a tray of 30. Residents in the central area of Singapore would wait for the egg truck every Thursday morning. When approached by Lianhe Zaobao, the seller told the reporter that the eggs were «local». As to their expiry date, the seller said «there is no specific deadline» and subsequently ignored the reporter's questions. One of the residents told the Chinese daily that his mother started buying the eggs from the back of the truck after neighbours told her the eggs were bigger and cheaper than those sold at the supermarket. «These eggs look and taste just like normal eggs, so I will eat them, but I still have doubts about where they came from,» said Mr Luo, who pointed out that the eggs had no barcode or stamp on the shell. Singapore Food Agency said all locally-produced and imported eggs must be stamped to ensure that the source can be traced in compliance with the food safety standards set by the authorities.

A fire broke out in a semi-detached house along East Coast Road on Sunday (Jan 5) and 35 people were evacuated as a result. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a Facebook post on the same day that it was alerted to a fire at the three-storey house at 305 East Coast Road at 12.45am. Upon arriving at the scene, firefighters from the Kallang and Paya Lebar Fire Stations saw that flames had engulfed the first floor of the vacated house and were spreading to the upper floors. They immediately conducted forcible entry into the house, using two water jets to contain the fire, SCDF added. SCDF also deployed a combined platform ladder to conduct aerial firefighting. The fire was fully extinguished at around 3am. As a result of the fire, the upper floors of the house sustained smoke and burn damage, and an adjacent unit was also partially affected. About 35 residents from neighbouring units were evacuated as a precautionary measure. There were no reported injuries, said SCDF.

She was heading towards the MRT train to get home on New Year's Eve when she was allegedly punched in the head by a man in the same lift. The 68-year-old cleaner ended up in hospital for two days and was given nine days' medical leave. The woman, Saniya, had been working at the Supreme Court for four years and would take the MRT train from City Hall back home after work, Shin Min Daily News reported. On Dec 31 at about 4pm, Saniya was making her way home as usual and took the lift at the MRT station. In the lift with her was an elderly man who looked to be in his sixties, Shin Min reported. According to Saniya, the man had with him a big bag of items and stood beside her. «He was standing to my right and the bag touched my leg. He then suddenly raised his fist and punched me on the right side of my head,» Saniya told Shin Min. She added that the two did not engage in conversation prior to the incident, which was over in a flash.

She had accidentally left her carry-on luggage at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and only remembered it when she was already back in Singapore. When she returned to KL two days later, the bag was found thanks to a thorough five-hour search by airport police. The woman, identified as Wang Liyue (transliteration), told Shin Min Daily News that she had flown to Osaka, Japan to attend a conference in December. As she could not get a direct flight back to Singapore, she opted to fly to KL before returning home via car. Said Wang, who works in academic publishing in the field of biology: «After touching down at the airport on Dec 20, I had to go through two security checks. After passing through the first check, I was busy preparing for the second check.» As the driver of the vehicle was getting impatient, Wang hurriedly rushed out, bringing only her check-in luggage with her. «I believe my friend had helped me to carry my bag to the security checkpoint, hence after it was done I didn't take it with me,» said Wang. She only realised to her horror that her bag was missing once she returned home.

SINGAPORE – More help will be provided to Singaporeans in February, when the new Budget is announced. During a visit to Jalan Besar GRC on Jan 4, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said he knows that many Singaporeans are concerned about challenges such as the cost of living, and the Government is dealing with that head-on. On Jan 3, $300 worth of CDC vouchers was disbursed to every Singaporean household. PM Wong said: “I hope this will be a good start for you, and it will help you as you prepare for the year ahead. “We will continue to provide more help for Singaporeans. The Budget is coming next month.” He added: “So we will continue to look at schemes and programmes and ways in which we can provide more help for Singaporeans, for cost of living, for your daily concerns and, importantly, to help all of us realise our dreams and aspirations together.” With 2025 also marking the Republic’s diamond jubilee, or SG60, PM Wong said people can see how much Singapore has progressed, because everyone worked together, especially the Pioneer and Merdeka generations.

SINGAPORE - As a graphic designer, Mr Pow Jun Yang's lifelong dream was to stage his own art exhibition. This became an item on his bucket list, when the 31-year-old bachelor was told recently by doctors that he has about three months left to live. Diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in early 2023, he has since exhausted all treatment options, including several cycles of chemotherapy. He has stage 4 urachal cancer, which arises in the urachus or its remnants. The urachus connects the umbilical cord to the bladder in a foetus, and usually closes before birth. While shocked, Mr Pow initially thought he could overcome the cancer, given his young age. But all the cycles of chemotherapy and operations he underwent to tackle the cancer failed to bring good news. Around May 2024, his doctors told him that he probably had a lifespan of around six months left. He has since outlived those six months. «I just tell myself to take each day at a time,» he said. Around November, his doctors gave him a three-month prognosis. That spurred him into action - to try to turn his dream of holding an art exhibition into reality.

SINGAPORE – Nicknamed Quicksilver Quah for his skill and speed, striker Quah Kim Song plundered plenty of goals for the Lions during his career, including a match-winning brace in the 1977 Malaysia Cup final as Singapore beat Penang 3-2 in front of thousands of fans at Kuala Lumpur’s Merdeka Stadium. But in front of 40 family members at the Church of St Mary of the Angels on Jan 4, the confident former footballer was a bundle of nerves. For the day marked an even more significant milestone, as he was about to marry Ms Sylvia Lim, the Workers’ Party (WP) chairwoman who is no stranger to delivering fiery speeches in large-scale rallies. The 72-year-old told The Straits Times: “Even the priest remarked that I looked nervous, and I was. “But Sylvia was very calm and even led the Responsorial Psalm effortlessly.” In the evening, Ms Lim posted on social media a black-and-white photo of the newly-weds walking hand in hand down a corridor, looking elegant in matching tailor-made white outfits. Her caption read: “For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.”

A 64-year-old cyclist died after an accident in Tampines involving a a trailer truck on the morning of Jan 3. Several police and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) vehicles were seen at the accident site, according to a report by Chinese-language daily Shin Min Daily News. In response to queries from The Straits Times, the police and SCDF said they were alerted to the accident at the junction of Tampines Avenue 2 and Tampines Street 11, at around 9.30am. A 64-year-old female cyclist was unconscious when she was taken to the hospital, where she subsequently died, said police. A 44-year-old trailer truck driver was arrested for «driving without reasonable considerations to other road users, causing death», police added. A group of around 10 family members and friends of the victim, including her daughter, were seen at the morgue on Jan 4 morning, reported Shin Min. Police investigations are ongoing. Traffic accidents claimed the lives of 71 people in Singapore in the first half of 2023, a 57.8 per cent jump from the 45 killed in the same period in 2022.

On the last day of their two-week Europe trip, a Singapore family of five had their luggage and valuables worth over $25,000 stolen from their rental car. Victim Lin Caiting (transliteration), 44, told Shin Min Daily News that the incident occurred in Rome, Italy, on Dec 26. Arriving at the Colosseum at about 3pm that day, Lin said they had parked the vehicle containing their five suitcases and four carriers in an open-air car park near the landmark. «We left after touring the place for less than two hours and discovered the car window had been smashed,» she recounted. Items allegedly stolen from their car include three laptops, a branded bag, expensive clothing and gifts, all of which are worth over $25,000, said Lin. Her husband's credit card had also been used to make eight transactions of about $50 each. The woman explained that they had exercised caution throughout their trip by keeping their wallets inside their jackets and always holding onto their luggage. As they had intended to head directly to the airport from the Colosseum to catch their 8pm flight home, they had not taken extra precautions against theft.

New year, new millionaires. Three lucky punters will each take home over $3.8 million after striking the jackpot in the first Toto draw of 2025 held on Friday (Jan 3) night. With no winners from the past two draws in December, the Toto New Year Draw jackpot had snowballed to an estimated $8.2 million. The Group 1 prize amount for Friday ultimately climbed to $11,637,633, after 38 per cent of sales was added to the snowballed sum. The winning numbers from the draw were: 9, 11, 24, 29, 39 and 46, with an additional number of 31. According to the Singapore Pools' website, two of the winning tickets are QuickPick System 7 entries, with one bought online and another at Tay Sui Lan Agency located at The Arcade. The third punter had purchased a QuickPick ordinary ticket at NTUC FairPrice Hillion Mall. Thirteen punters who won the Group 2 prize will each collect over $136,000.

More than 100 employees of hospitality group Tipsy Collective who were affected by delayed October salary payments received all dues by December, after fresh investor funding ensured timely payouts and full Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions. The employees, who were supposed to receive their October salaries on Nov 5, initially received partial payments a few days late. They were fully paid by mid-November after four shareholders injected an undisclosed amount of money to rescue the business. The funds were also used to pay the CPF owed to the employees for September and October. With fresh funds injected, the company managed to pay salaries on time along with full CPF contributions on Dec 5. The home-grown food and beverage operator has been grappling with legal disputes and financial instability. It has closed two bars and one restaurant since October. The workers were redeployed to the company’s remaining seven outlets, a spokesman said.

A man begging for money along Waterloo Street was arrested by the police after some members of the public raised doubts about his behaviour.  The man, who has a 7cm tumour on his jaw, was seen sitting outside Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple on Dec 31, reported Shin Min Daily News. With legs of different lengths, he relied on crutches to walk. Seated in front of a lamppost, the man would hold two to three packets of tissue in his hand, attempting to sell them to passers-by.  Upon seeing his disabilities, several people handed him cash, ranging from $2 to $10. They did not take any tissues from him.  According to Shin Min, the man received about $50 in the span of 10 minutes.  His actions eventually caught the attention of member of the public who called the police on him.  Officers arrived at the scene and took the man aside for questioning. When asked for his identification, the man pulled out a passport believed to be from China.  The questioning continued for about half an hour before the man was taken away in a police car. 

Singaporean households will receive $300 worth of Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers on Friday (Jan 3) to help with cost of living. In a video posted to his social media pages, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said that the vouchers are available for redemption on Friday, and are valid till Dec 31. «I hope this will go some way in supporting you and your family,» said PM Wong. The latest tranche of CDC vouchers are part of the $1.9 billion enhancement to the Assurance Package which were announced during Budget 2024.  Singaporeans would get $600 in CDC vouchers — which would be split into two disbursements in June 2024 and January 2025. 

The results of the 2024 GCE O-level examinations will be released next Friday (Jan 10).  School candidates will receive their results from their secondary schools from 2.30pm on Jan 10, said the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) on Friday (Jan 3). Details on the specific collection arrangements will be shared by the respective schools.  School candidates who are unable to collect their results in person can appoint a proxy to collect a physical copy of the results on their behalf. To do so, the proxies must produce relevant documents for the school's verification when collecting results.  School candidates may also approach their respective schools if they are unable to appoint a proxy.  Private candidates with a Singpass account may retrieve their results online via the SEAB's candidates portal from 3.15pm on Jan 10 to 11pm on Jan 24.  Those without a Singpass account can view their results on the portal with the account they created when during registration for the exams. 

Seniors in Singapore spend an average of $2,278 annually on lottery tickets, one study has found, with about half of those surveyed reporting net winnings in the past year. These findings were based on a paper titled «Consumption Responses to Income Shocks through Lottery Winning: Evidence from Older Adults in Singapore» published in 2024 by Koh Kanghyock and Kim Seonghoon, reported Lianhe Zaobao. The latter is an Associate Professor of Economics at Singapore Management University, as well as the Deputy Director at the Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA), according to the university's website, while Kang is an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics at Korea University. Based on data from 58.9 per cent of those surveyed, the average lottery expenditure in the last 12 months was $2,278. About 51 per cent of them reported that they had won a net positive amount in the last 12 months, with the average prize money at $1,090. This survey involved 6,212 individuals aged between 50 and 70.

SINGAPORE — In the heat of an argument over parenting styles, a woman threatened her husband that she would tell the police he had raped her, and told their teenage son she was going to kill his father in his sleep. Jessinta Tan Suat Lin, 50, also hit a female neighbour with a mop until its aluminium handle broke into three because the latter did not stop skipping rope in a common area after Tan asked her to. On Jan 2, Tan pleaded guilty to three charges — one each for committing a rash act, voluntarily causing hurt and harassment. Two other charges — for harassment and another rash act — will be taken into consideration for sentencing. The housewife is a former journalist who previously worked with news platforms including Today. On the evening of Feb 16, 2024, Tan was at home at Westmont condominium in West Coast Road when her neighbour began exercising with a skipping rope at the common area near the swimming pool. Frustrated because her son wanted to rest, Tan approached her neighbour and asked her to stop exercising, but she refused.

Some Immigration and Checkpoint Authority (ICA) officers were in for a treat yesterday (Jan 1) when they received a cake from their Malaysian counterpart at the ICA Woodlands checkpoint. In a Facebook post on the same day, the Malaysian immigration authorities wrote: «In conjunction with this new year's celebration, the Sultan Iskandar Building Immigration Office is pleased to hand over [our] gift in the form of a cake to our colleagues at ICA Woodlands.» «We thank you and may this practice continue every year as a symbol of the goodwill relationship between the authorities of the two countries. Happy New Year 2025.» Photos uploaded together with the post show Sultan Iskandar Building's Deputy Chief of Immigration Vimala Ramalinggam smiling as she handed the confectionery to Senior Assistant Commander Superintendent Lee Lai Yen. The rainbow cake received by ICA was adorned with red and white cream roses with well-wishes «Happy New Year 2025. Peace, prosperity, safety!» written on it. 

It takes 50 minutes to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, but for one woman recently, it took two days. She boarded her Scoot flight at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Dec 28 evening and after a series of unfortunate circumstances, Stomp contributor Annah landed at Changi Airport only two days later on a different airline. Her original Scoot flight TR469 was scheduled to depart at 7.10pm on Dec 28, but a technical fault was detected. «We remained on the aircraft until they asked us to deplane at about 9pm,» recounted the Stomp contributor. «The new scheduled departure was an hour later. So we just hung around in the airport. They boarded us again at 10.30pm, but they couldn't take off due to same technical issues »Around 12:15am, they declared the flight cancelled and offered to two options: cancel and get 100 per cent refund or wait for them to work on hotels and a new flight." She said there were many children and elderly people on the flight and the passengers started getting upset as the ground staff were not providing information such as the time of the new flight.

A motorist was so astounded by the behaviour of a woman that he likened it to something you see on National Geographic. Stomp contributor Lee alerted Stomp to the videos of the incident in the carpark behind Ang Mo Kio Hub on the afternoon of New Year's Eve posted by Facebook user Ma Jian Ting, who was the motorist. He was waiting for a car to leave a lot before reversing into it, but as soon as the car departed, a red Byd Atto drove forward and a woman in a red top got out of the passenger side. Stepping forward, she raised her right hand to stop Ma from reversing into the lot so that the Byd could park there instead. After parking, the Byd driver got out of the car and both women took out their phones and appeared to take photos or videos of Ma's vehicle. Ma posted on Facebook: "Never in my life have I witnessed someone claim parking spaces like they were defending a sacred relic. Apparently, the entire street was her personal empire, and I was foolish enough to think I could park there.