SINGAPORE — Instructed by his former stepfather to steal a luxury watch worth more than $47,000 from a Carousell user, a teenager «chickened out» three times before finally doing so with the help of a friend.Nigel Tan, 19, was also promised by the older man a larger share of the proceeds from the sale of the watch.Nigel was sentenced to reformative training on Aug 14 after pleading guilty to one count of cheating.His former stepfather, Kyoshirocaeden Tan Lee Yu, 37, is still at large.Nigel's accomplice, Lucian Tan Keat Hong, 20, was also arrested, but court documents do not state if he has been charged.Kyoshirocaeden Tan married Nigel's mother when the boy was about three years old. After the couple divorced in 2019, Nigel began living with Tan from 2022. The older man was unemployed, while Nigel worked as a bartender.On April 22, 2024, Tan told Nigel he needed money badly and asked for the youth's help to cheat someone into handing over an expensive watch, so they could sell it.

Singapore and India reaffirmed close ties and discussed areas to strengthen bilateral collaboration during the third India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR) on Wednesday (Aug 13) in New Delhi.In a doorstop interview after the conclusion of the ISMR, DPM Gan said that Singapore's six-member delegation held productive talks with their Indian counterparts and detailed potential collaborations regarding sustainability, digitalisation, skills development, healthcare and medicine, advanced manufacturing, and connectivity. In particular, DPM Gan highlighted interest from Singaporean companies to set up a semiconductor ecosystem between the two nations in hopes of strengthening their supply chains.Citing the «very long and complex» supply chains where different semiconductor parts are often manufactured at separate locations, DPM Gan said that it is important for businesses to diversify their pipelines so that they are less susceptible to disruption, alluding to the external disruptions caused by US tariffs.

A former secondary school teacher has been sentenced to jail for targeting three teenage girls and trying to engage in sexual activities with them on separate occasions in 2021.The 33-year-old man, who was referred to as a «sexual predator» by prosecution, pleaded guilty to four charges under the Children and Young Persons Act on Aug 11 and was sentenced to nine months' jail.The man cannot be named due to a gag order protecting the victims’ identities.Responding to AsiaOne's queries the Ministry of Education stated that the man is no longer working as a teacher, and stopped working for the ministry in March 2022.Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Bryan Wong told the court that the man was posted to the school in 2017 and had given advice to its student councillors.He also regularly received and accepted «follow» requests from students on his personal Instagram account.The man got to know one of the victims when he taught her in Secondary 1. The pair followed each other on Instagram, and she left the school some time before 2021.

The size of the compensation package and rehousing options will weigh heavily in their decision to sell their HDB flats back to the Government under the Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (Vers), elderly residents living in older estates have said.They were reacting to National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat’s remarks in an interview that his ministry aims to use the current term of Parliament to develop the policy framework for the scheme.This includes identifying possible sites where the scheme will be first offered, ensuring that there are sufficient homes for those involved to relocate to, and working out a fair compensation package for residents whose flats are taken back early.Once the policy parameters are in place, Vers will be progressively offered to a “few selected” sites likely from the first half of the next decade when the flats there are about 70 years old, Chee said.Vers was first announced by then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in 2018 to allow the Government to buy back flats nearing their 99-year lease by compensating residents and redeveloping the land.  

A man and a woman in their 30s died following a blaze that took place at Block 106 Jalan Bukit Merah on Wednesday (Aug 13) afternoon.The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) responded to the fire at around 4pm, according to a Facebook post that day.Upon arrival, they saw that the living room and bedroom of a unit on the fourth floor were on fire, and worked to extinguish the flames with a water jet.Amid the operation, firefighters found two unresponsive individuals in the kitchen and immediately carried them out of the unit before conveying them to Singapore General Hospital.According to police, a 34-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman were conveyed unconscious to the hospital, where they subsequently died.The police do not suspect foul play and investigations are ongoing.

A 31-year-old woman was taken to the hospital following an accident involving two cars along Joo Chiat Road on Monday (Aug 11) afternoon.A video posted to Xiaohongshu the same day showed several people tending to a person lying on the pavement before Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers took over. An ambulance can be seen parked on the side road.The crash left the right rear bumper of a white car severely damaged, while the white Mitsubishi behind sustained a dent on its front, leaving its hood slightly crumpled. Debris was also seen scattered across the road between the two cars.When a Shin Min Daily News reporter visited the scene, a female shop assistant nearby said that she saw a passenger in a private-hire car injured after the accident, and a man falling to the ground after getting out of the vehicle. She added that the two cars had been travelling along the main road and had likely collided in a rear-end crash. Responding to queries from AsiaOne, the police and SCDF confirmed that they were alerted to the road traffic accident along Joo Chiat Road at around 3.10 pm.

Four alleged members of a Chinese criminal syndicate, who were charged with possessing housebreaking instruments, were taken back to Bukit Timah on Thursday (Aug 14) as part of police investigations. He Jiao, 38, Zhou Qifa, 36, Yang Chao, 41, and Zhou Yinggui, 36 were allegedly found carrying three screwdrivers and two wrenches near the Greenleaf private estate on the night of Aug 8, according to court documents. The quartet were charged in court on Aug 10.On Thursday morning, two of the men were brought to the Rail Corridor in two police cars. He Jiao, the first suspect to arrive, wore a stoic face when he alighted from the vehicle just before 10.30am.Flanked by three officers, he was led to a stretch of path near the Bukit Timah Truss Bridge and questioned. He jutted his head towards the bridge and pointed in that direction in response to questions posed by the officer. The man left in the police car slightly over five minutes later. The second suspect, Zhou Qifa, arrived at 10.37am and stepped out of the vehicle with his head kept bowed.

SINGAPORE — In a ploy to withdraw money from her Central Provident Fund (CPF) account before the permitted age of 55, a woman forged two medical documents claiming she had a respiratory illness.Although the CPF Board (CPFB) saw through the ruse and did not disburse any funds to her, the prosecution said Nasuha Zakaria's crime constituted serious mischief.On Aug 12, the 34-year-old was sentenced to five months and 10 weeks' jail after she pleaded guilty to one forgery charge and two unrelated charges of theft.Four other charges of theft, forgery and fraudulently possessing property were taken into consideration during sentencing.Deputy Public Prosecutor Nivethaa Ravintharan said the scheme Nasuha tried to exploit was intended for individuals with a reduced life expectancy, those who are permanently unfit for work or those lacking mental capacity.The prosecutor added: «CPF is a government body and this is a situation where the public confidence is at stake.»The court heard that in 2021, the CPFB received two medical certification forms from Nasuha.

Workers' Party (WP) candidates said that their decision to contest in Singapore's next general election will not depend on personal choice, but on whether the party attracts more qualified candidates.WP candidates Siti Alia Abdul Rahim Mattar and Sufyan Mikhail Putra sat down with fellow party members and hosts of This Side of the House, Eileen Chong and Andre Low.In a 42-minute-long debut episode uploaded to the party's social media channels on Monday (Aug 11), the first-time candidates reflected on GE2025 and their personal experiences stepping into Singapore's political arena as newbies.When asked about their plans to run again at the next election in five years, Siti Alia said that it would depend on what is best for the party.«It's always a question of if there are better candidates, more experienced candidates, more trained candidates — people that the party feels would be a better fit,» she said.Siti Alia said it may not be necessary to field the same candidates, but that it might be more important for the party to continue contesting in the same constituencies.

As Singapore ramps up enforcement efforts against drivers providing illegal ride-hailing services within the country and across the border, local licensed drivers are reportedly seeing their business pick up.Many of the drivers offering illegal cross-border point-to-point rides or chartered transport hail from Malaysia and charge less, reported Shin Min Daily News.A limousine driver surnamed Chen told the Chinese evening daily that such unlawful services is a major point of discontent among Singapore drivers.But since the Land Transport Authority's (LTA) clampdown, he said that illegal ride-hailing drivers from Malaysia do not dare to offer their services, leading to a «boom» in business for local drivers.«My business these few days has increased by 30 per cent,» Chen added.At least another five local drivers also told the Chinese daily that they have been picking up more passengers.Liang, 72, said that he still sees some illegal ride-hailing foreign drivers on the weekend, but there are fewer drivers as compared to before the crackdown.

Former Nominated Member of Parliament Calvin Cheng has settled his claim for defamation against former Singapore Democratic Party chairman Jufrie Mahmood.Cheng sued Mahmood over a Facebook post made in March this year about Cheng's comments on activists who disrupted a Meet-the-People Session in Chong Pang.Mahmood had said that Cheng, who proposed sending the activists to Gaza as long as they did not return, was an Islamophobe and a threat to racial and religious harmony to Singapore.Cheng has since apologised for his comments and said he should have been more sensitive.On Mahmood's accusations, Cheng said in April that they were «factual inaccuracies» and «outright lies», and took legal action against him.In a Facebook post on Tuesday (Aug 12), Mahmood said that he has met with Cheng to «speak to each other frankly and civilly». He added that he has retracted all of his statements against Cheng after accepting he is «neither a racist nor an Islamophobe».