The rail reliability task force has made «good progress» in developing measures to improve the performance of Singapore's train network, said the expert panel appointed to advise the group on its findings.Panel member Dr Tony Lee, who was formerly operations and innovation director at Hong Kong's MTR, made the remark on Friday (Nov 21) as he wrapped up his five-day visit here.Representing the other international rail experts on the panel — Patrick Bauchart, Dr Cai Chang Jun, Professor Tsay Huel-Sheng and Kon Shinichiro — Dr Lee told reporters that they have reviewed the preliminary findings and suggestions of the LTA-led task force.«We are genuinely impressed by the remarkable progress made in such a short time,» he said, referring to the formation of the task force in September 2025 following a spate of train disruptions.

A campaign aimed at promoting awareness about drink-driving and responsible behaviour on the roads has returned following a rise in the number of arrests.The annual initiative known as the Anti-Drink Drive Campaign is organised by the traffic police (TP) and typically runs during festive periods with community outreach and enforcement operations.Speaking at the launch of the 2025 campaign at Clarke Quay on Friday (Nov 21), Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs Sim Ann said that there were 94 drink-driving accidents from January to August this year —  a 17 per cent dip from 113 during the same period in 2024. But arrests have increased by four per cent to 1,173 from 1,130.«These numbers showed that there are still motorists who continue to take reckless risks with their own lives and that of other road users,» said Sim.The senior minister of state also cited recent cases this year, including a 56-year-old veteran criminal lawyer who was sentenced to eight weeks’ jail on Nov 7 for driving, while drunk, into the central guard railings and then lying to the police that he was not the driver.

A total of 185 people, including 173 students and 12 staff members, across six E-Bridge pre-schools developed gastroenteritis symptoms after consuming food supplied by the same caterer.Gastroenteritis is commonly known as stomach flu or food poisoning.In a joint media statement by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) and the Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA) on Friday (Nov 21), they said they are investigating six incidents of gastroenteritis at the E-Bridge pre-schools in Bukit Panjang, Canberra, Montreal and Woodlands Drive; at Block 471B Yishun Street 42 and Block 504 Yishun Street 51.Among those affected, one student was hospitalised but is now in a stable condition, while others have either sought outpatient treatment, self-medicated or since recovered without treatment.The agencies said that all six pre-schools had their meals supplied by Middleton International School Pte Ltd — located at 2 Tampines Street 92. 

A 73-year-old taxi driver was taken conscious to hospital after an accident in Hougang along Upper Serangoon Road in the early hours of Friday (Nov 21). The crash involved a ComfortDelGro taxi and a Trans-cab taxi. The police and Singapore Civil Defence Force said they were alerted to the accident along Upper Serangoon Road towards Sengkang East Drive at about 3.05am. The other driver, a 53-year-old man, is assisting with investigations. A video of the scene shared on TikTok shows a blue ComfortDelGro taxi with the driver's door slightly ajar and its hazard lights on. A red Trans-cab taxi is seen on the other side of the road divider, having stopped against the flow of traffic with debris, skid marks and an oil slick on the road behind it.In a separate video, a passer-by can be heard speaking in Mandarin as he checks on the taxi driver, informing him that an ambulance is on the way.

A 16-year-old was among 250 people who are assisting in investigations for their suspected involvement in scams as scammers or money mules, where victims reportedly lost more than $7.74 million.Officers from the Commercial Affairs Department and the seven police land divisions conducted a two-week operation between Nov 7 and 20, said the Singapore Police Force in a statement on Friday (Nov 21).A total of 84 women and 166 men, aged between 16 and 79, are believed to be involved in more than 950 cases of scams, comprising mainly e-commerce scams, friend impersonation scams, job scams, government official impersonation scams, investment scams and rental scams.They are being investigated for the alleged offences of cheating, money laundering or providing payment services without a licence. Under Section 420 of the Penal Code 1871, the offence of cheating carries a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine. Under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992, the offence of money laundering carries an imprisonment of up to 10 years, a fine of up to $500,000, or both. 

One hundred and forty suspected drug offenders were arrested and drugs seized in an islandwide operation from Nov 10 to 21, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said in a statement on Friday (Nov 21). The drugs seized include about 4.3kg of heroin, cannabis, Ice and Ecstasy tablets, among others.Also seized was a small amount of ketamine and numerous vape-related products including 316 e-vaporisers and 1,342 e-vaporiser pods believed to contain etomidate.The drugs seized are estimated to be worth more than $892,000, and the heroin, Ice and cannabis could potentially feed the addiction of 2,873 abusers for a week.The operation was conducted in areas including Bedok, Bugis, Bukit Batok, Geylang, Jurong, Sembawang and Yishun.Over 1,600 e-vaporisers and pods seized in YishunOn Nov 13, a 36-year-old Singaporean man was arrested for suspected drug-related offences at a residential unit near Yishun Ring Road. Cash amounting to about $5,320 and various foreign currencies such as Thai baht and Brunei dollars were seized from the unit. 

Online marketplace Carousell will be implementing enhanced safeguards by Jan 31, 2026, to prevent the misuse of verified accounts for scams, said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday (Nov 21).It said that the need for additional safeguards comes amid an increasing number of e-commerce scams perpetrated by scammers using Singpass-verified Carousell accounts.To enhance security, the popular online marketplace has committed to improving authentication processes and suspending accounts detected to have been relinquished to scammers.It will also blacklist Singpass credentials used to verify suspended scam accounts from verifying new accounts.Under the e-commerce code of the Online Criminal Harms Act, Carousell was previously required to conduct enhanced verification on selected high-risk sellers and advertisers between July 1 and Dec 31, 2024, with the pilot subsequently extended to June 30, 2025.The ministry said the total number of reported scams on Carousell decreased by about 36 per cent between April and June 2025 from the same period last year.

A Singaporean man who is suspected to be a member of a Cambodian scam syndicate escaped to Thailand and hid at his wife's house in the northeastern Khon Kaen province, Thai police revealed.Brian Sie Eng Fa, 32, whose wife is Thai, was arrested upon request by the Singapore police, said the Thai police's Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) in a Facebook post on Wednesday (Nov 19).He was arrested at his wife's house, which is in Si Chomphu district of Khon Kaen province, on charges of overstaying in Thailand, said the CIB.Sie and another alleged syndicate member, Singaporean Wayne Soh You Chen, were charged at the State Courts on Nov 17 under the Organised Crime Act, having been deported to Singapore and arrested on arrival a day earlier. Soh was arrested in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.Thai Police Lieutenant Colonel Narongrit Phumphuang told local media that Sie confessed to working as a «finance administrator» for the scam ring, earning about US$4,000 (S$5230) monthly.

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will visit Johannesburg in South Africa from Nov 21 to 23 to attend the G20 summit at the invitation of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. PM Wong, who is also Finance Minister, will then make an official visit to Ethiopia from Nov 23 to 25.This will be PM Wong's first visit to the two countries, which are member states of the African Union, since he became prime minister in May 2024.The African Union Commission, the administrative headquarters of the 55-member African Union (AU) is headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, while the AU's Pan-African Parliament sits in Midrand, South Africa. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a statement on Friday (Nov 21) that the summit's theme of «Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability» seeks to address the interlinked global challenges of climate change, inequalitym and geopolitical stability. 

The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) has upgraded Singapore's economic growth forecast for the year to around 4 per cent on the back of better-than-expected performance in the third quarter of 2025.The revision from a projected 1.5 to 2.5 per cent is due to «global economic conditions turning out to be more resilient than expected», said the ministry in a press release on Friday (Nov 21).Meanwhile, MTI expects Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2026 to come in at a slower 1 to 3 per cent.4.2% growth in Q3Singapore's economy grew by 4.2 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2025, extending the 4.7 per cent growth in the previous quarter, said MTI.MTI first upgraded the growth forecast for 2025 in August due to the pause in the US' reciprocal tariffs and an improved outlook for Singapore's external demand due to the de-escalation in trade tensions between the US and several of its trading partners. 

Singapore will impose targeted financial sanctions and entry bans on four Israeli individuals with immediate effect, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in a statement on Friday (Nov 21). It added that the four individuals — Meir Mordechai Ettinger, Elisha Yered, Ben-Zion Gopstein and Baruch Marzel — have been involved in «egregious acts of extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank». Such actions are considered unlawful and undermine and jeopardise prospects for a two-state solution, said the ministry.«Singapore reiterates its view that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law. Their presence and expansion will make it much harder to arrive at a viable two-state solution,» said MFA. As a firm supporter of international law and the two-state solution, Singapore opposes any unilateral attempts to change facts on the ground through acts which are illegal under international law.«We call on the Israeli government to restrain acts of settler violence and to hold the perpetrators accountable,» said MFA.[[nid:724908]]

Singaporean child sex offender Amos Yee is facing deportation from the US to Singapore after being paroled while serving a six-year jail term for child pornography and sexual grooming.Yee, 27, who first rose to notoriety 10 years ago – when he posted an expletive-laden video four days after the death of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew – was released from the Danville Correctional Center in Illinois on Nov 20.A notification from the Victim Information and Notification Everyday, or VINE, service at 7.14am Illinois time (9.14pm Singapore time) said Yee was let out of prison.He was originally supposed to be released on Nov 7, with the service issuing a notification that he had been let out. Not even a minute later, a subsequent notification stated that he was taken into custody again.A post on a blog maintained by his supporters dated some time earlier in the month said his release was delayed as Yee did not have a place to stay that would be located away from children, with the prison needing to find him a halfway house.

At least $6,000 has been lost since October 2025 to scams claiming to have concert tickets to shows by K-pop girl group Blackpink, said the Singapore police.The K-pop group will be staging their Deadline world tour at the National Stadium on Nov 28, 29 and 30.In a statement on Thursday (Nov 20), the police said that there were at least 11 reported cases in which victims bought tickets offered for sales on messaging or social media platforms. These victims had responded to offers for the sale of concert tickets on platforms such as Carousell, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, TikTok and Xiaohongshu. Scammers would then provide screenshots or videos of fake tickets or receipts to convince victims that the tickets were authentic.They would also claim that ticket sales were time-sensitive or limited in quantity and promise to deliver the tickets after payment were made.When the victims told the scammers that they did not receive their concert tickets, the scammers would ask for additional payment, claiming that the initial payment was not received.

Water with a milky appearance allegedly seen flowing from multiple taps in Waterway Point on Wednesday (Nov 19) was possibly a result of maintenance works on the water valves, a spokesperson for the mall told AsiaOne.Preliminary assessment indicated that fine air bubbles may have affected the clarity of the water.Ealgene Mok, a visitor to the mall in Punggol, had expressed alarm to AsiaOne on Nov 20 at the unusual appearance of the water.«I first noticed the issue after observing that the tap water in the Basement 2 toilets appeared chalky and cloudy. It also had a slightly powdery touch,» said the 40-year-old. Wanting to confirm whether the issue was isolated, she proceeded to the Basement 1 washroom, where she said she observed the same appearance from the taps.«At that time, I spoke with a staff member from a cafe who also happened to be in the washroom,» said Mok.