A container with over 500kg of cannabis was intercepted at Pasir Panjang scanning station during enhanced checks on Jan 3, said the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) and the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on Friday (Jan 9).In a joint statement, they said that the container had been targeted for enhanced checks following information received by Singapore Customs and a pre-arrival risk assessment by ICA's Integrated Targeting Centre. ICA's image analysts detected anomalies in the scanned images of the container. Physical inspections by ICA officers found a packet of brownish substance suspected to be a controlled drug inside a box within the container, which prompted further investigations by CNB officers.In total, 902 packets of cannabis, weighing about 509kg, was uncovered.Based on preliminary investigations, the authorities found that the drugs were transiting through Singapore to another country. Investigations are ongoing. Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, those who import into or export from Singapore more than 500g of cannabis may face the death penalty.[[nid:727403]]dana.leong@asiaone.com

A 70-year-old male taxi driver and a 31-year-old male passenger were taken to hospital after being involved in an accident which left the ComfortDelGro taxi overturned on the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) on Thursday (Jan 8). The police and Singapore Civil Defence Force said they were alerted to an accident involving a car and a taxi along the PIE towards Tuas, after the Jurong Town Hall exit, at around 7.15am. The injured cabby and passenger were taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital. A 68-year-old male car driver is assisting with investigations, said the police. In a TikTok video on Jan 8, a yellow ComfortDelGro taxi is seen lying overturned, with its airbags deployed, on the first or rightmost lane of the expressway. 

Leader of the House Indranee Rajah has filed a motion to ask Parliament to consider Workers' Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh's suitability to continue in his role as the Leader of the Opposition (LO). The motion is set to be raised at a sitting on Jan 13 at the earliest, said the Office of the Leader of the House on Friday (Jan 9). Singh was convicted in court in February last year of lying to a parliamentary committee over the case of former MP Raeesah Khan and was sentenced to a fine of $7,000 for each of two charges. His appeal against conviction was dismissed by the High Court in December 2025. The motion which will soon be raised seeks that Parliament «affirms that honesty and integrity are fundamental pillars of Singapore's parliamentary and political system». It also requests that the House, «expresses regret at the conduct of Mr Pritam Singh, which was dishonourable and unbecoming of a Member of Parliament». 

Tan Yong Hock Amos was living on the streets for 23 years before he finally sought help from social service organisations.Speaking to AsiaOne on Wednesday (Jan 7), Tan, 43, recounted the hardships he endured while struggling to make ends meet as a teenager. «I was living in and out of my home from the time I was 16 years old. Both my parents were gamblers, and when I was younger, I took on odd jobs, such as washing dishes at night, earning about $30 or $40,» he said.«I was forced to work day and night, and whenever I went home, the door was always locked.»Tan is one of many homeless individuals who sought support at a transitional shelter, where he stayed for several months, regaining stability before he could staring saving and gradually pay for his own home. The shelter, where he stayed at Spooner Road, has since relocated to a new site in Yio Chu Kang — Transit Point @ Yio Chu Kang — in November 2024.

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) on Thursday (Jan 9) has ordered a stop to the sale of five batches of Nestle's infant formula and follow-on formula over the potential presence of cereulide toxin.Both the SFA and communicable Disease Agency (CDA) said in a joint statement late on Jan 8 that the measure will remain in place while investigations are carried out.Singapore's move follows that of at least 37 other countries, including most European states, as well as Australia, Brazil, China, Mexico and South Africa, which have issued health warnings over the infant formulas possibly being contaminated. The European Commission Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed and the International Food Safety Authorities Network had also issued similar notifications on Jan 7 and 8, respectively, according to the statement. The affected products all originated from Switzerland.

A video allegedly showing two motorcyclists on separate Malaysia-registered motorcycles trying to evade parking fees at an open carpark in Marina Bay has sparked debate.In the video posted to Facebook group Complaint Singapore, member Daryl Toh said that the incident happened at about 10pm on Wednesday (Jan 7) evening.«How much can the parking fees be for motorcycles in Singapore? It's embarrassing,» he wrote.Checks online by AsiaOne indicate that the charges for motorcycle parking at the said carpark is 25 cents per block of 30 minutes. 

Remember the toasty, parching heat of mid-2025?With mean temperature at 29.3 deg C, June was Singapore's hottest month of 2025, tying with 1997 as the warmest June on record, the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) said on Thursday (Jan 8).And the warm weather continued into the following month where July's monthly mean temperature came in at 29.1 deg C, making it the second warmest month in 2025 and the second warmest July since temperature records started in 1929.«2025 was the eighth warmest year for Singapore, and we experienced our warmest June and November on record,» stated MSS.The monthly mean temperature in November was 28.2 deg C, and the hottest day recorded at Changi climate station in 2025 was on Oct 28 when the daily maximum temperature reached 35.9 deg C.

In the immediate aftermath of the US' intervention in Venezuela, some analysts were quick to opine that the attack will embolden China to strengthen its territorial claims over areas such as Taiwan and parts of the South China Sea. However, political analysts AsiaOne spoke disagreed with this take, stating that they do not expect China to take a similar course of action on Taiwan or elsewhere — at least not in the short-term. US Special Forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores early on Saturday (Jan 3) and subsequently flew them to the US — where Maduro was indicted on charges including including narco-terrorism and Flores charged with cocaine importation. 

The use of military force in Venezuela may have yielded success for the US, but it comes at the cost of destabilising international order, said Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday (Jan 8).Speaking at the Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute’s Regional Outlook Forum at Sands Expo & Convention Centre, SM Lee acknowledged Venezuela as a «complicated country», whose legitimacy of its government is questioned, while causing difficulties to the US due to drugs and refugees.«But that does not justify a military intervention by one country into another, unilaterally and without any proper authorisation,» he said.On Jan 3, US seized Venezuela's long-serving President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and flew them to the US, accusing the president of «narco-terrorism».The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Jan 4 that Singapore is gravely concerned by the US intervention in Venezuela and urged all parties to exercise restraint for a peaceful resolution there.

Singaporean R Shanmugaratnam and Briton James Henry O'Sullivan were sentenced to jail on Tuesday (Jan 6) for falsifying accounts in relation to collapsed German payments company Wirecard, according to police on Thursday.Shanmugaratnam, 59, received 10 years' jail time, while O'Sullivan, 51, got 6.5 years.Both were convicted on Sept 22, 2025, following a joint trial between July 31, 2023 and Feb 21, 2025 over 26 days, police stated.Shanmugaratnam is a director of a local accounting and auditing company, Citadelle Corporate Services Pte Ltd, who was alleged to have issued 13 balance confirmation letters to Wirecard entities between March 2016 and April 2018.The letters were found to have fraudulently represented to Wirecard, its subsidiaries, and its auditors that Citadelle held over €1.1 billion ($1.6 billion) in Wirecard funds in escrow accounts.Shanmugaratnam was subsequently convicted of 13 counts of falsification of accounts.

Over 57,000 Malaysians renounced their citizenship and moved to Singapore within a five-year period up to Dec 17 last year, Harian Metro reported on Wednesday (Jan 7).Speaking with the Malaysian publication, Malaysia's National Registration Department director-general Badrul Hisham Alias said that a total of 61,116 Malaysians relinquished their citizenship within the time frame, with 93.78 per cent of them (around 57,315) heading for Singapore, 2.15 per cent to Australia and 0.97 per cent to Brunei.He added that women were the majority of those relinquishing their citizenships — totalling 35,356 — while an average of 10,000 Malaysians give up their citizenship each year.«The decision to relinquish Malaysian citizenship is largely driven by economic and family factors,» he explained in an interview with Harian Metro.«In the case of Singapore, many Malaysians are employed there, and employment prospects and income levels make it easier for them to obtain citizenship.»Most Malaysians who marry foreign spouses and migrate overseas cite family reasons for changing their nationality, Badrul explained.

The Ministry of National Development (MND) and HDB will be studying the voting process for the Home Improvement Programme (HIP), said Minister for National Development Chee Hong Tat.Speaking to the media on Thursday (Jan 8) after a visit to ParkEdge @ Bidadari, Chee said that the voting threshold for HIP is an issue that the ministry is «studying heavily», after recent voting exercises for upgrading estates failed to proceed when they did not meet the threshold. «We want to help the estates that are older to go through HIP,» the minister said, emphasising that the ministry has observed that reaching the threshold may be significantly more challenging for blocks with fewer units. Launched in 2007, HIP helps upgrade older HDB flats and address common maintenance issues. For HIP to proceed, at least 75 per cent of a block's eligible Singaporean households will have to vote for it. 

A 27-year-old man was taken to the hospital and subsequently arrested after being involved in a four-vehicle collision in Seletar on Tuesday (Jan 6). In response to AsiaOne's queries, the police said they were alerted to an accident involving a car, a truck and two cement mixer trucks along 14 Seletar North Link at about 8am that day. The 27-year-old car driver was taken conscious to a hospital and later arrested for rash or negligent conduct related to machinery and fraudulent possession of property, said the police. The Singapore Civil Defence Force said the man was taken to Sengkang General Hospital.The police added that an e-vaporiser was also seized and the related offence has been referred to the Health Sciences Authority (HSA). 

A Singapore-registered saloon car was left partially crushed after an accident along Jalan Pantai in Johor Bahru on Wednesday (Jan 7) afternoon.Videos of the aftermath of the accident circulating on Facebook show a Malaysia-registered Toyota Hilux truck piled atop a Singapore-registered car, while two other cars in front also suffered damages.Dashcam footage obtained by Malaysian media outlet Asia Television News show a lorry smashing into the rear of the Singapore-registered car, a Toyota Premio. The violent collision sent the car sliding under a stationary Toyota Hilux. Footage shows the Singapore-registered car stopped roughly half a car length behind the truck.