For the first time in 40 years, new public housing flats will be built on Pearl's Hill in Outram. At over 60 storeys high and comprising around 1,700 units, the Build-To-Order (BTO) project will be the tallest public housing development in Singapore upon completion, said National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat in Parliament on Wednesday (March 4).The project will surpass The Pinnacle@Duxton, which currently holds the record as Singapore's tallest public residential complex, by more than 10 storeys.Chee said that building taller HDB flats «where possible» is part of his ministry's plans to find more ways to build more public housing by «intensifying» land usage.This comes after the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore in August last year updated its rules in line with how tall buildings and structures can be near airports, paving the way for residential developments to be taller by up to 15 storeys.«A 60-storey block can provide 50 per cent more flats compared to a 40-storey block, the height of most of our tallest HDB blocks today,» said Chee in a speech laying out his ministry's spending plans in the coming year.

HDB will introduce longer rent-free periods for coffee shops and supermarkets, along with bus services that start when residents collect their keys, as it seeks to reduce the inconvenience of those who move into new large-scale BTO estates. This was announced by Senior Minister of State for National Development Sun Xueling during her ministry’s budget debate in Parliament on Wednesday (March 4).She said a multi-agency committee, led by the Ministry of National Development (MND) and HDB, identified five areas to support residents moving into new large-scale BTO estates of more than 3,000 flats.These are: access to transport, cooked food and groceries, childcare services, sheltered linkedways and waste-management.Set up in mid-2024, the BTO Coordination Committee includes the Land Transport Authority, the National Environment Agency, the Early Childhood Development Agency, the Infocomm Media Development Authority and the People’s Association.«Every estate is different and there can be project-specific issues that cause some variation,» said SMS Sun.

The Ministry of National Development (MND) will study and review ways to better support housing options for singles, said Minister Chee Hong Tat at the ministry's Committee of Supply debate in Parliament on Wednesday (March 4).He pointed to the 2-room Flexi flats application rates for singles and seniors to explain why a robust supply is needed.«To do more for our singles and other groups of flat buyers, we will need to build more flats to ensure adequate supply,» Chee said.In the February 2026 Built-To-Order (BTO) sales exercise, the median application rate for first-timer was 6.7, with Tampines Nova and Redhill Peaks seeing applications above the median rate.

SINGAPORE — The High Court on March 4 allowed an appeal by Lim Oon Kuin, the 84-year-old founder of failed oil trading company Hin Leong, and imposed a term of 13.5 years.This means a shaving of four years off his original sentence.Justice Hoo Sheau Peng said the original jail term of 17.5 years' jail was «crushing» even with the usual one-third remission.Lim, who is better known as O.K. Lim, was sentenced in November 2024 for two counts of cheating and one count of abetting forgery, in what prosecutors described as «one of the most serious cases of trade financing fraud that has ever been prosecuted in Singapore».After a lengthy district court trial, he was found to have duped HSBC into disbursing US$111.6 million (S$143 million) to Hin Leong based on two fabricated oil sale contracts.He was also found to have instructed a former employee to forge documents for one of the bogus contracts.On March 4, Justice Hoo found that the district judge who sentenced Lim erred in according weight to the prosecution's arguments that Lim's offences had undermined public confidence in the oil sector.

As a country heavily reliant on imports, Singapore is particularly vulnerable to external shocks and supply chain disruptions.This vulnerability in the face of rising global uncertainties can, in turn, affect Singapore's survival, said Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Zaqy Mohamad. SMS Zaqy, who is also Senior Minister of State for Defence, set out how Singapore intends to build options and flexibility to deal with different scenarios of disruption at the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment's (MSE) Committee of Supply debate on Wednesday (March 4).Citing disruptions during Covid-19 and Malaysia's ban on the export of live chickens in 2022, the senior minister of state cautioned that tiding through disruptions will become more challenging."We also need to manage our risks from animal disease, which add to further pressure on global food supply and prices.

The engine compartment of a Suzuki hatchback caught fire along Kaki Bukit Avenue 4 on Tuesday (March 3). A video of the incident posted in a motoring chatgroup shows flames and thick black smoke rising from the car's engine compartment.Based on the video, it is a Suzuki Swift hatchback, which is not an electric vehicle.In response to AsiaOne's queries, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the incident at about 3pm.The fire was extinguished using a hose reel, SCDF added.No injuries were reported and the cause of fire is under investigation.[[nid:730619]]editor@asiaone.com 

An overnight cycling race that took place at Seletar Mall in Sengkang last weekend has made quite a buzz on social media.While some expressed excitement over the Downmall Challenge — possibly the first of its kind in Singapore — others fretted over safety issues.On Sunday (March 1), Nasthasia Nadiah, who represented Singapore in cycling at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, shared a first-person view as she raced through the mall from level four to level one.In the clip of her practice run, she can be seen manoeuvring her YT Capra bike around traffic cones, going down escalators, and navigating tight corridors. At the finish line, she rode her bike up a ramp. The TikTok video, which has garnered over 570,000 views as of Tuesday, also attracted numerous comments.Some praised the event for being interesting, with one calling it «one of the coolest things in Singapore». Others hoped that bigger malls such as VivoCity and Suntec City would hold such events so cyclists can have larger race courses. Some expressed interest and asked how to participate in future editions of the event. 

SINGAPORE — Some restaurants and food and beverage outlets with dine-in services will not charge customers the 10-cent deposit when they order bottled or canned drinks from April 1, the day the Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS) kicks in.For other food shops, such as those in hawker centres and coffee shops, collection of these containers could be challenging due to the porous nature of the dining areas. There could be multiple drink stalls within the same area.In these cases, the beverages will be sold with the 10-cent deposit, said Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Janil Puthucheary on March 3, during the debate on his ministry's budget.Under the scheme administered by the National Environment Agency (NEA), customers will pay an additional 10 cents, which is a refundable deposit, for bottled and canned drinks ranging from 150ml to 3 litres.When containers bearing the «Deposit Mark» are returned at the reverse vending machine, customers can retrieve their deposits via their ez-link cards or their DBS PayLah! wallets. NEA is an agency under the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment.

As the intensifying effects of climate change become increasingly felt, Singapore will not be spared from the impacts and cannot afford to be «mere passive bystanders», said Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu. Fu, who is also Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations, set out the key tenets of Singapore's first national adaptation plan (NAP) to build a climate-ready nation at the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment's (MSE) Committee of Supply debate on Tuesday (March 3).Citing a 2024 World Economic Forum report, the minister warned that climate hazards are projected to cause economic loss of over a trillion dollars by 2050. «Disruptions in food production and water supplies may become frequent occurrences,» Fu said, adding that economic instability and geopolitical contestations such as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, will mean that the planet will face the impacts of climate change «more severely, and sooner».«We must prioritise building a climate-ready Singapore now,» she urged. 

For 39-year-old Sue Yang, safety had always been a given — until Iranian missile and drone attacks struck Dubai, where she has been based with her family for the past four years. Speaking to AsiaOne on Tuesday (March 3), Yang recounted the launch of attacks at the weekend. «I was at home with my family at that time. When it first happened, it caught my family and me off guard because we weren't expecting anything like that,» said the mother of one. «What was especially shocking was when we first heard the explosions (from the weapons and interceptors) — it was pretty terrifying because we didn't know what it was.»Yang shared that her 11-year-old son was initially worried, but she reassured him that everything would be fine. After coordinated offensive strikes by the US and Israel against Iran on Saturday (Feb 28), Tehran began retaliatory missile and drone attacks across the Gulf — including on the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where Dubai is located.

A man was arrested for drink driving after being found asleep at the wheel near Sim Lim Square.Photos of the incident were posted on Monday (March 2) to the Complaint Singapore Facebook group, showing a blue GetGo car parked across from Burlington Square.A man in a red shirt was seen being arrested by police officers, and an ambulance was seen parked nearby.In response to AsiaOne’s queries, the police said that received a call for assistance along Bencoolen Street at 10.10am the same day.Upon their arrival, officers observed that a man was sleeping at the driver's seat inside a stationary car. The driver, a 33-year-old male, was arrested for drink-driving. No injuries were reported and police investigations are ongoing.[[nid:730736]]dana.leong@asiaone.com 

The police have arrested three Singaporean men, aged between 32 and 53, in connection with ongoing investigations into transnational scam syndicate Prince Holding Group, its founder and chairman Chen Zhi, and his associates and related companies.Chen, the alleged head of a Cambodian-based scam empire, was extradited to China from Cambodia on Jan 7. He was shown cuffed at his wrists as he was escorted off a China Southern Airlines flight that day. In October 2025, the Singapore Police Force mounted islandwide enforcement operations against Chen and his associates, seizing or prohibiting the disposal of over $150 million in assets. No arrests were made at that time as Chen and his associates were not in Singapore. 

If you have seen videos showing two horses roaming around Pasir Ris on Tuesday (March 3) and wondering if they were generated using artificial intelligence, the answer is they are real.In the videos, two horses — a white horse and a brown horse — were first seen «riding» against the flow of traffic outside Stratum, a private residential development, before «horsing» over to the right side of traffic outside Pasir Ris Elias Community Club.@asiaoneTwo horses, one white and the other brown, were seen «horsing along» Pasir Ris Drive 3 on Tuesday (March 3) morning. AsiaOne understands that the horses are likely to have escaped from Gallop Stable's horse riding school at Pasir Ris Park, some 400m away. A staff member told AsiaOne that the two horses have since returned safely. #sgnews #Singapore #Road #Horse

A tool to assess workers' artificial intelligence (AI) readiness levels and recommend training courses for upskilling will be among the new features that will be rolled out to the MySkillsFuture portal, Minister of State for Education Jasmin Lau said in Parliament on Tuesday (March 3).To be launched in the second quarter of this year, it is part of the slew of announcements from Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's Budget 2026 speech which outlined a national push to boost AI capabilities.Developed by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) and the Singapore Institute of Technology, users of the tool will gauge their AI readiness level through a questionnaire.They will then receive course recommendations that are appropriate for their skill level.The AI-related courses on the MySkillsFuture portal will also be tagged by archetype, which users can search for through an AI-powered digital adviser, said MOE in a press release.While there is already a wide range of AI-related courses — around 1,600 — on the website, PM Wong said the issue is that it is not always easy to navigate the options and identify what is relevant. 

He may not have found much joy in finding what they set out for, but sadness and a sense of relief instead.Muhammad Fazly Laily, 33, who led a small search party near the Kallang River last Thursday (Feb 26) night, described how they discovered the body of Muhammad Qayyim Daniel Putra Rosli, 13.Daniel was fishing with a group of friends on Feb 25 when he fell into the Kallang River and went missing.Fazly told Malay publication Berita Harian: «I do feel relieved. At least the boy's family is no longer wondering where he is. Otherwise, it would have been a pity for them to keep wondering.»Fazly, who works as a cleaner, said he had decided along with his family that they would join the ongoing search for Daniel after breaking fast.Beginning at 9.30pm from Block 15 Upper Boon Keng Road, he said that they were searching for an hour before they spotted something floating in the water.«We stopped and tried to take pictures, but we couldn't be sure whether it was the body of the deceased or not because it was very dark,» he said, adding that the object looked like «a head and shoulders».

SINGAPORE — A female former teacher has been handed more than 20 charges after she allegedly engaged in sexual activities with at least one underage boy on multiple occasions in 2023.It cannot be determined for now if this case involved more than one purported victim, as all information involving the boy mentioned or any others has been redacted from court documents.The documents also did not disclose how she was linked to the alleged victim or victims.The case involving the 40-year-old woman, who cannot be named due to a gag order, was mentioned in a district court on March 2.There is also a gag order involving the details of a certain school, said to be linked to her case.The woman faces 26 charges in total for offences including procuring an obscene act from a minor, having sex with an underage boy and performing an act that could obstruct the course of justice.Each sex-related charge is said to involve one boy, who was below 16 years old at the time.

Like a scene out of action-adventure video game Grand Theft Auto, there was drama in the quiet neighbourhood of Sembawang on Sunday (March 1) night as police sirens rang through the neighbourhood. The incident happened at about 11.10pm at a Traffic Police (TP) roadblock along Canberra Walk towards Canberra Link. Police told AsiaOne that the driver did not comply with a TP officer's instruction to stop for checks and instead sped off.A video of the incident, filmed at a bus stop in front of Block 108A Canberra Walk, shows two TP outriders and an expressway patrol car in pursuit of a dark-coloured Mazda sedan. They were heading in the direction of Canberra Crescent. According to the police, the car later self-skidded along Canberra Crescent, towards Canberra View, where the 46-year-old male car driver fled on foot, but was subsequently arrested by officers.Police said he was arrested for reckless driving, driving whilst under disqualification, suspected drink driving, cheating and suspected drug-related offences.

SINGAPORE – After dropping off eligible cans and bottles for recycling from April 1, consumers can receive 10-cent refunds via their DBS PayLah! wallets.This is the second digital refund option under the Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS), apart from tapping ez-link cards, which was announced earlier.The recycling scheme requires consumers to return their used drink containers at over 1,000 reverse vending machines islandwide.Under the programme, consumers will pay an additional 10 cents, which is a refundable deposit, for bottled and canned drinks ranging from 150ml to 3 litres.To use PayLah!, consumers must generate their personal QR code under “My QR” in the app and scan it at the machine, said DBS Bank in a statement on March 2.PayLah! is open to all residents in Singapore, and people can sign up for the app without a DBS or POSB bank account, it added.After consumers return the bottles and cans, refunds will be credited into their PayLah! wallets, with confirmation via a notification.Reverse vending machines will be placed in supermarkets, HDB void decks and town centres, among other high-footfall areas.

Mobile network operators  in Singapore are «actively working» on resolving three outstanding complaints regarding weak mobile network coverage in the Bidadari estate, said Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo.Teo, who is also the Minister-in-charge of Cybersecurity and Smart Nation, was responding to a parliamentary question on Monday (March 2) by Member of Parliament Alex Yeo.Yeo, who represents Potong Pasir SMC, had asked the minister if the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) had received feedback of connectivity dead-zones and weak signal strength in the Bidadari estate over the past five years.He also asked if such feedback arose due to a delay by telecommunications companies (telcos) in installing boosters pending the completion of the developments, and how telcos will address such connectivity gaps.In her written reply, Teo reiterated that mobile network operators are required to meet IMDA's quality of service standards. She added that IMDA conducts regular checks islandwide to ensure that these standards are met. 

The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) on Monday (March 2) said it is closely monitoring the Middle East situation and will make every effort to support and care for Singaporean students there.«The safety and wellbeing of Singaporean students remain our priority, with every effort made to support and care for them,» Muis said in a statement on Monday evening.It added that student liaison officers in Cairo, Egypt and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, are working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' overseas missions and maintaining regular contact with Singaporean students in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.«They have been offering support and guidance during these uncertain times,» Muis said.Parents and/or guardians of students in these countries can contact Muis at 6359-1199 or info@muis.gov.sg should they have further queries.Muis also urged the community to pray for the safety of students and Singaporeans in the Middle East, and for peace to return to the Middle East and all troubled regions of the world.