Three judicial commissioners will be appointed as judges of the High Court on Aug 1, while an existing Supreme Court judge will be reappointed as justice of the Court of Appeal for a year, said the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Wednesday (July 16).The Supreme Court comprises the Court of Appeal and the High Court. Justice Steven Chong Horng Siong, 67, will be reappointed as a Justice of the Court of Appeal from Sept 23 when his three-year-term ends.He specialises in several areas including arbitration, complex commercial cases, banking, securities, and shipping. Justice Chong was appointed Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court on Oct 1, 2009, and judge of the High Court on June 1, 2010. Between 2012 and 2014, he served as attorney-general and returned to the bench as High Court judge in June 2014, and was appointed as a judge of appeal (now known as justice of the Court of Appeal) in April 2017. He was reappointed as Justice of the Court of Appeal in September 2022.

He was planning to register his marriage to his girlfriend next year, but an accident last month has left 32-year-old Malaysian Guo Jiahuang in a coma for about 20 days.Guo, who hails from Ipoh, was riding his motorcycle from Johor Bahru on the morning of June 25 to drop his girlfriend, Lin Yingying, 37, who works at a food factory in Singapore, when the accident occurred, Shin Min Daily News reported.The couple were on the Seletar Expressway (SLE) towards the Central Expressway (CTE) when two vehicles ahead of them collided. Unable to stop in time, Guo's motorcycle crashed and the couple were thrown off the bike.Both Lin and Guo were taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, confirmed the Singapore Civil Defence Force in a reply to AsiaOne's query.When contacted by AsiaOne, police stated that they were alerted to an accident involving two cars and a motorcycle along the SLE towards the CTE on on June 25, at about 5.15am.A 31-year-old male motorcyclist was taken to the hospital unconscious while his 37-year-old pillion rider was conscious when taken to hospital.

SINGAPORE — Drunk after consuming two cans of beer, a man pushed another intoxicated man he did not know into the Singapore River and caused the latter to drown.Prosecutors said Legha Pawan's act on June 30, 2024, which led to the death of Jasbir Singh, 33, was unprovoked and done for no apparent reason.On July 16, Legha, 22, was sentenced to two years' and 11 months' jail after he admitted to one charge of voluntarily causing hurt which causes grievous hurt.Another charge of using criminal force on a woman the same night was taken into consideration for sentencing.Both Legha and Singh are Indian nationals. Singh, a construction worker, was married and had two young children.The court heard that Legha had come to Singapore to further his studies and was enrolled at the private educational institution Birmingham Academy at the time.That evening, Legha and five of his housemates were in the Clarke Quay area, where they bought beer and snacks and sat on the steps by the riverside talking. Other acquaintances soon joined them.

A group of up to 30 women dressed in revealing clothes have reportedly been hanging out near Orchard Road at night allegedly soliciting business from male passers-by.They have been gathering outside Forum The Shopping Mall about three months ago, according to a tip-off sent to Shin Min Daily News.The anonymous informant claimed that the number of women loitering along the walkway would reach its peak at about 11pm. Most of them would stay till around 1am, with some supposedly staying until 4am.«At the most, there were between 20 to 30 of them, and it is a serious issue,» he said.A reporter from the Chinese evening daily who visited the scene spotted about 10 sexily dressed women, believed to be between the ages of 20 and 40, sitting on benches or stairs along the street.The women would approach male passers-by and allegedly flirt with them, initiating physical contact and saying: «Be my boyfriend tonight.»According to the reporter, both parties will agree on a price before walking to a nearby bus stop or taxi stand and leaving.

Stepping into an eatery, the last thing most diners would expect is a menu entirely in a language they don't understand.After all, English is Singapore's lingua franca and the working language of the civil service, bringing its diverse communities together.While bigger chains like Haidilao, Tanyu, and Tongue Tip Lanzhou Beef Noodle cater to all customers with bilingual menus, some Chinese food establishments have been spotted operating without English menus — a trend that some non-Chinese Singaporeans call «exclusionary».A photo of a Chinese pancake stall menu recently went viral for its lack of English. The stall is located in Clementi's Gantral Mall, which one Google Maps user nicknamed «mini-Chinatown» in a review.This is in spite of Singapore Food Agency (SFA) regulations stating that food businesses offering prepacked food for sale in Singapore must provide labels with basic information about the product, such as its source, contents, and net quantity, in English.The labelling requirements do not extend to non-prepacked food like dishes served in a restaurant.

The World Aquatics Championships open water races will proceed as scheduled after a «significant improvement» in water quality at Sentosa, said organisers in a statement on Wednesday (July 16) morning.They stated that water quality tests conducted on Tuesday evening showed levels of E. coli falling between the ranges of «good» to «excellent» according to World Aquatics regulations, allowing the races to resume.The men's and women's 10km open water swimming events will now kick off at 1pm and 4pm respectively, following a postponement announced late on Tuesday due to inadequate water quality.«Regular water quality monitoring and testing continues throughout the competition period to ensure athlete safety, with the health and safety of all participants continuing to guide all competition-related decisions,» said the organisers.Water quality concernsSentosa is the venue for the high diving and open water swimming events at the World Aquatics Championships, which are being held in Singapore for the first time.

A tree falling amid inclement weather isn't unheard of — but what about on a dry afternoon, even striking a passing vehicle? That was what happened along Seletar Expressway (SLE) on Tuesday (July 15), as captured in a video posted on the SG Road Vigilante Facebook page the same day.In the 31-second video, a car can be seen travelling along the rightmost lane of the SLE, passing multiple slender, tall trees planted in the centre median of the road.Abruptly, one of those trees falls to the left — just as the car travels towards it, smashing through its branches. The force of the impact instantly causes the tree to splinter, with what's remaining of its trunk landing on the right-most lane.The car that recorded the video — behind the one struck by the falling tree — is forced to slow down as it drives over debris from the accident.Many netizens on Facebook were left astonished by the incident, with some making references to the horror franchise Final Destination, where characters meet their grisly ends in freak accidents.«Luckily no one [was] injured,» a user added.

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officials intercepted a Malaysia-registered lorry at Tuas Checkpoint and found 60,000 e-vaporisers and related components concealed in the cabin.In a Facebook post uploaded by ICA on Tuesday (July 15), officers said they had directed the lorry for further checks on July 8, where they also uncovered heat sticks, which are heated not burnt. The case was referred to the Health Sciences Authority for further investigation.  Meanwhile, in a vape-related incident, a man was found unresponsive while holding an e-cigarette on board an SMRT bus early this month.

The first of two new light rail vehicles (LRV) for the Sengkang-Punggol LRT (SPLRT) line began its first passenger service on Tuesday (July 15) where it completed three loops over the course of an hour in the afternoon.The two new trains will ply the 14-station line, and will be deployed to the Punggol West Loop and Punggol East Loop over the two upcoming weekends, announced the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and SBS Transit.They will then be deployed for weekday service towards the end of July. These trains are part of the 25 new third-generation LRVs which will be progressively introduced into passenger service beyond the third quarter of 2025 after comprehensive testing and commissioning.Come end 2028, the SPLRT fleet will consist 33 two-car LRVs, which will increase passenger capacity to meet ridership demand, LTA and SBS Transit said.Speaking with the media at the first train's maiden voyage at Punggol station, Senior Minister of State for Transport Sun Xueling shared that residents of Punggol and Sengkang «have been looking forward to this development for many years now».

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Law (MinLaw) has taken four law firms and one lawyer to task for anti-money laundering breaches over the purchase of properties in the $3 billion money laundering case, with one of the practices receiving the maximum penalty.In a press release on July 15, MinLaw said it is supporting the Director of Legal Services (DLS) in conducting inquiries into the law practices that were involved in the conveyancing of the real estate seized in an anti-money laundering operation in August 2023.It said the DLS conducted investigations into 24 law practices that were involved, and 11 of the probes have been concluded.The DLS heads the Legal Services Regulatory Authority, which is a department under MinLaw that oversees the regulation of all law practice entities and the registration of foreign lawyers in Singapore.The DLS has ordered two law practices to pay financial penalties of $30,000 and $100,000 respectively.

A woman's life became a nightmare after discovering that a friend had allegedly been stealing her identity card details to borrow money from loan sharks.Speaking to AsiaOne, the woman, who only wished to be known only as Zhuo, said she was overwhelmed with despair and frustration after receiving funeral wreaths on the evening of July 7.They were all addressed to her. Several of these wreaths were delivered to the music studio she owns in Jurong West, as well as to a beauty salon and a neighbouring residential unit located below her unit. «My son had arrived at our club to meet us when he noticed funeral wreaths placed outside our studio at around midnight. He called me immediately, and I rushed down and contacted the police,» said the 60-year-old.Zhuo later found out that two other wreaths had also been delivered — one to the beauty salon located on the third floor and another to a neighbour's residential unit on the second floor.«I had to apologise to the neighbour and the salon owner for being dragged into this. I didn't want our relationship to turn sour because of this,» said the mother of three.