SINGAPORE - More cleaners have been deployed to Tampines after a newly appointed contractor failed to keep parts of the estate clean due to a lack of workers.The town council will impose liquidated damages on the contractor - Ban Chuan Trading and Engineering - for these lapses, said town council chairman Baey Yam Keng on May 8.Mr Baey is also Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth, and for Transport.On April 1, Ban Chuan took over cleaning contracts for three out of five divisions in Tampines GRC - Tampines Boulevard, Tampines Central and Tampines North.Residents told The Straits Times that bins and bulky items subsequently took longer than usual to be cleared.One resident in Tampines Boulevard, Mr B. Ram Nangina, 63, said items such as cartons and small furniture were left near the letterbox on several occasions in April.Ms Lena Cheng, 48, who lives in the same estate, also saw canned drinks left on the floor of her void deck on several occasions.«I think the cleaners are doing their job; it's just that there are people who dump their litter on the floor,» the housewife said.

The police are appealing for information on the whereabouts of an 11-year-old girl, Kelly Ho Li Ying.In a news release on Sunday (May 10), the police said she was last seen at Block 632 Jurong West Street 65 at about 10am on Saturday (May 9).The said address is in the vicinity of Boon Lay Secondary School and West Grove Primary School.According to the police, the girl was last seen wearing a white shirt and red shorts.Those with information are urged to contact the police hotline at 999 or submit information online at www.police.gov.sg/i-witness.All information will be kept strictly confidential, the police said.[[nid:735166]]editor@asiaone.com 

A Malaysian man and a Singaporean woman accused of handling fraudulently registered SIM cards used by scammers were taken to mobile phone shops in Boon Lay for investigations on Sunday (May 10) morning.Malaysian national Liew Ming Han, 28, was cuffed at his wrists and ankles as he was led by officers to a shop inside Boon Lay Bus Interchange at about 9.05am on Sunday.He kept his head bowed throughout questioning.Liew was charged on Saturday with the facilitation of fraudulent registration of SIM card that facilitates criminal activity.Court documents seen by AsiaOne state that Liew was a retailer at the mobile phone shop when he allegedly registered a SIM card using the personal information of another person, who did not consent to the registration.He had been arrested on May 7 in a police raid against errant retailers involved in the registration of postpaid SIM cards used by scam syndicates.Singaporean Chen Zhuqin, 51, was also arrested in the same raid for allegedly supplying fraudulently registered SIM cards to a scam syndicate.

About 25 shops in the Chong Pang neighbourhood were affected after a water pipe leak in Yishun on May 10 caused flooding.This leak occurred on an underground water pipe near the junction of Block 101 Yishun Avenue 5 and Sembawang Road at about 1am, causing water to overflow into nearby surrounding areas, said national water agency PUB in a Facebook post on Sunday. A service crew was deployed to isolate the leak and repair works are ongoing.«There is no disruption to water supply for homes and businesses in the area,» PUB said.The agency also said it is working with Nee Soon Town Council to carry out clean-up works in affected areas and is investigating the cause of the pipe leak.'Substantive amount of water'Coordinating Minister for National Security K. Shanmugam, who is also an MP for Nee Soon GRC, told reporters that about 25 shops have been affected.He added that officers from town council had been in the area since 2am.«The cleaning up has taken some time because a substantive amount of water had come out,» he said.

A fire broke out in a Simei HDB flat on Friday afternoon (May 8) resulting in one person being taken to the hospital.The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a Facebook post that it was alerted to the fire at Block 153 Simei Street 1 at about 4.40pm on May 8.When firefighters arrived, they found the living room of a second-floor unit on fire, which they extinguished using a water jet.Three people had evacuated from the affected unit before SCDF officers arrived, while about 10 others from the block were evacuated by the police and SCDF as a precaution.SCDF said the entire living room was damaged by the fire, while the rest of the flat was affected by heat and smoke damage.One person from a neighbouring unit was assessed for smoke inhalation and taken to Singapore General Hospital.SCDF added that preliminary investigations suggest the fire likely originated from a power bank charging in the living room.The post reminded the public not to leave batteries or devices charging unattended for long periods of time or overnight.

Some nine in ten parents polled by the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) in its inaugural Preschool Experience Survey have indicated their satisfaction with preschool safety standards and education quality.The findings of the survey, commissioned in November 2025 and involving nearly 1,800 parents, were shared at the Start Small Dream Big Walkathon on Saturday (May 9) .Organised by educational consultancy Preschool Market and supported by ECDA, the event brought together about 5,000 preschoolers, their families and early childhood educators to foster greater awareness of values-in-action and community involvement in children's development. In a news release the same day, ECDA said its survey was conducted to understand parents' experiences and satisfaction across key aspects of their children's preschool journey.This includes: quality of education, safety of the preschool environment, and confidence in the professionalism and expertise of early childhood educators.

Singapore's broad priorities when it assumes chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in 2027 will reflect continuity from previous years' chairmanship, even if the specific measures and focus will differ, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Saturday (May 9).He was speaking to the media as he wrapped up a three-day visit to Cebu, Philippines to attend the 48th Asean Summit.Asked about Singapore's priorities as incoming Asean chair next year, PM Wong said these are still being worked out, but the key issues and focus will revolve around similar themes.He listed strengthening Asean's collective resilience, advancing the 11-member bloc's integration efforts, and advancing its community building agenda as Singapore's possible broad priorities.But PM Wong also pointed out these broad priorities — which were also reflected in previous years' chairmanship — are a continuity, adding that the specific measures and focus, which are being worked on, will differ from chair to chair.

A 23-year-old male motorcyclist was taken to hospital on Thursday (May 7) night after the motorcycle he was riding was involved in an accident with a car in Jurong.The accident happened at about 9.55pm at the junction of Jurong East Avenue 1 and Jurong Canal Drive.  Map showing where the accident involving a motorcycle and car took place on Thursday (May 7) night. GRAPHIC: Google Maps Photos of the accident shared on a motoring chat group show the badly damaged motorcycle lying on its side. Debris, including parts of the motorcycle's bodywork, are seen strewn across the junction.A white Mazda saloon car, with its front bumper partially dislodged, was stopped in the middle of the junction. 

The recent cyberattack on global learning management platform Canvas has not compromised any sensitive information from students at the National University of Singapore (NUS).In a statement addressing the matter, a spokesperson for the university told AsiaOne on Saturday (May 9) that it is aware of the data breach.NUS was among multiple educational institutions affected by the cyberattack on May 7, which blocked access to the platform. Access was restored on May 8. Cyberextortion group ShinyHunters claimed to be behind the incident.Other local universities in the list of affected institutions include the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) and the Singapore Institute of Management.Assuring that data protection and security are its priority, the NUS spokesperson said the university is in touch with US-based company Instructure, which owns Canvas, to assess the impact. 

Four wet markets in Housing and Development Board (HDB) heartlands — at Fajar Shopping Centre, Yew Tee Square, Bukit Batok West Shopping Centre, and Woodlands North Plaza — will undergo upgrading works when their respective 30-year leases end between now and end-2027, said Senior Minister of State for National Development Sun Xueling.Sun, who is also Senior Minister of State for Transport, made the announcement in a Facebook post on Saturday (May 9), after she visited the newly upgraded wet market at Serangoon Central Village a day earlier.The wet market was returned to HDB in 2024 after its lease expired. It later underwent upgrading works and now has a new layout with more stalls.«The stallholders I spoke to welcomed the bright, airy layout. Residents had also shared with me that they found the rejuvenated market to be a more pleasant experience for them. They were also glad to have more food options than before with a new eating house,» Sun wrote.

A woman who lost an eight-year-long battle with cancer shared her final words through a posthumous post on LinkedIn.Assistant human resources manager Grace Seah died aged 41 on Thursday (May 7) and her last letter to her loved ones went up the next day.«Thank you for your friendship, love, and kindness — I feel incredibly blessed to have had you in my life,» she wrote.Seah also invited those who saw her post to her wake, which was held from Friday to Saturday.«I hope it becomes a time of reconnection, with more flowing conversations than tears — and a reminder to live fully in the present,» she said.«I believe death ends life, not love or relationships. When you miss me, just think of me — the silly things I said or did, the moments we shared.»Thank you for loving me, and for grieving me," she added.Seah assured those who were unable to come that it was alright for them not to attend.

Singapore has to become better in defending itself against artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled threats, while becoming experts at using the technology for its own purposes, said Coordinating Minister for National Security K Shanmugam on Saturday (May 9).Speaking to the media after a community event in Yishun, Shanmugam, who is also Minister for Home Affairs, set out Singapore's approach to securing itself against AI-enabled threats following recent developments on frontier AI models.This comes as financial institutions across the globe scramble to assess cybersecurity risks brought about by Anthropic's frontier AI model Mythos.Anthropic earlier this month debuted Mythos, its most advanced AI model to date and designed for defensive cybersecurity tasks.But concerns intensified after Anthropic said a preview of Mythos uncovered «thousands» of major vulnerabilities across every major operating system and web browser, raising fears about the resilience of traditional software security. 

Following a three-week long islandwide enforcement operation which ended on Friday (May 8), the police have arrested seven people and are investigating 65 others for their alleged involvement in registering SIM cards for illicit purposes.The police said in a news release on Saturday that the operation, which began on April 20, involved officers from its Anti-Scam Command and its seven land divisions.The operation targeted errant subscribers who registered postpaid SIM cards that were subsequently linked to criminal activities. A total of five men and two women, aged between 18 and 35, were arrested for their suspected involvement in providing registered postpaid SIM cards for monetary gains.Another 62 men and three women, aged between 16 and 56, are also being investigated, said the police.Preliminary investigations revealed that these errant subscribers were offered cash rewards of between $10 and $20 per registered SIM card.These subscribers were purportedly instructed to register and buy SIM cards in bulk from different retailers, and handed over between 30 and 64 registered SIM cards to be the syndicate's courier.

A four-night Disney Adventure voyage scheduled to set sail from Singapore on Thursday (May 7) was cancelled a day later because of «mechanical issues».Passengers on board the cruise took to social media to share the disappointing news on Friday afternoon.According to posts made on a Reddit community centred around the Disney Cruise Line, the vessel had purportedly suffered an engine issue and was being repaired.«After embarking the cruise yesterday, we were informed by the captain that the cruise is having some technical issues and engineers are working and that we will set sail soon,» one Redditor wrote on Friday.«Today at approximately 2pm Singapore time, the captain announced that they are cancelling the adventure... It's really disappointing especially if vacationing with kids.»The vessel remained docked overnight at its homeport, the Marina Bay Cruise Centre, reported Lianhe Zaobao.A passenger from Hong Kong, surnamed Huang, told the Chinese publication she had flown in specially for the cruise.She said facilities were open, except for the Disney merchandise shops. 

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) can do more with countries like its Plus Three partners — China, Japan and Korea — and Australia and New Zealand to enhance the 11-member bloc's resilience, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Friday (May 8).«The conflict has shown that Asean does not exist in isolation. So even as we think strengthen our intra-Asean trade, supply chain, and integration, we have to think creatively about how we can work with external partners to enhance our resilience,» PM Wong said at the retreat session of the 48th Asean Summit being held in Cebu, Philippines.Beyond the Plus Three partners, which Asean member states have close links with, he suggested that the bloc can do more with countries like Australia and New Zealand. He noted that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had visited a number of Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia and Singapore.

A brawl in the Boat Quay area has resulted in the arrest of two men.The suspects, aged 25 and 31, had allegedly fought with another man at about 3.20am on May 3, the police said in a statement on Friday (May 8).A video of the scuffle uploaded online shows a large group of people gathering on a road, with several people lunging at each other.Two people are seen throwing punches at one another.The police said the two men had left the scene after the altercation. A police report over the fight was lodged at about 2pm that same day.They were subsequently identified by officers and arrested on May 7 and 8.They will be charged in court for affray on May 9. If found guilty, they could be jailed for up to one year, fined up to $5,000, or both.«The police have zero tolerance towards acts of violence with blatant disregard of the law,» the statement said, adding that offenders will be dealt with sternly.[[nid:735186]]lim.kewei@asiaone.com