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.

Punters can now put their luck to the test as the Toto jackpot has snowballed to an eye-watering $10 million for the upcoming draw on Thursday (July 17). The top prize went unclaimed with no winners for the past three draws. The Singapore Pools' website shows that the unclaimed prize money for Group 1 was about $1.2 million on July 7, around $2.9 million on July 10 to almost $5.8 million on Monday (July 14). Prior to this, the last Group 1 prize to be won was on July 3, where a single ticket managed to win nearly $2.9 million. This win was a System 7 ticket purchased online.The upcoming $10 million draw marks the seventh time the jackpot has hit the $10 million mark in 2025.In the last draw where the jackpot surpassed $10 million, a sole winner of Group 1 managed to take home about $12.3 million on June 19.The winning ticket, a QuickPick System 7 entry, was sold at the NTUC FairPrice outlet in Yew Tee Point.The next draw with $10 million on the line will take place on Thursday at 9.30pm.[[nid:719144]]khooyihang@asiaone.com 

One person was taken to the hospital and 60 residents evacuated after a fire broke out at a Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat in Toa Payoh on Monday morning (July 14).A picture of the aftermath of the incident was posted to Facebook by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) on Monday (July 14).According to its post, SCDF responded to the fire in Block 194 Kim Keat Avenue at about 11.50am that day.Upon arrival, it was discovered that the fire was in a bedroom in a unit on the 12th floor. Firefighters entered the smoke-filled flat and put the flames out using a water jet.The unit and the corridor area outside the unit sustained heat and smoke damage as a result of the fire, said SCDF.