Two men who drove without a valid driving licence will be charged in court on Wednesday (July 29), the police said. One case involves a 22-year-old man who was caught driving two unregistered cars just four days apart.Police said the man was stopped for the first time by the traffic police along Bedok Reservoir Road at about 12.50am on June 14.He was found to be driving a deregistered car without a valid driving licence.On June 18, at about 10.20pm, he was caught again, this time driving another deregistered car along Edgedale Plains in Punggol.He will face charges of driving without a valid driving licence, using a motor vehicle without insurance coverage, and using a deregistered vehicle.In another case, a 50-year-old motorist was stopped by a traffic police officer along Jurong West Street 73 at about 5.20am on April 14.He did not have a valid driving licence, said police.The man will be charged with driving without a valid driving licence and using a motor vehicle without insurance coverage.

Singaporeans are living longer and healthier lives, but Singapore's population is also ageing rapidly, with 20.7 per cent of Singaporeans aged 65 and older as of 2025.Against this backdrop and a falling labour force participation rate, there have been efforts to bring seniors back into the workforce.One such example is Schneider Electric which specialises in digital transformation of energy management and automation solutions. Located in Kallang, the French multinational company has over 1,300 employees from 44 nationalities.Of these, about 70 per cent, or over 900 workers are locals.Recognising Singapore's ageing population, with about 20 per cent of its workforce aged 51 and above, the company started its «Experience Forward Programme» — an initiative aimed at supporting its experienced workers.Under the programme, employees are empowered to learn, grow and contribute meaningfully at every stage of their careers. 

Two men, aged 18 and 28, will be charged in court on Wednesday (July 29) for their alleged involvement in several cases of loanshark harassment.The police said on Tuesday night that they were alerted to one such case at a residential unit along Sembawang Drive at about 8.55am on Sunday, in which a wall beside the lift lobby was scribbled with loanshark-related graffiti.A photograph of the alleged crime scene reads: «O$P$. Next is sure your neighbours face big problem. Confirm do until you settle me. My name is [redacted](sic).»Officers from Woodlands, Central and Clementi Police Divisions identified the man through follow-up investigations and with the aid of images from police cameras.He was arrested on Monday, with preliminary investigations indicating that he is possibly involved in at least four other similar cases islandwide.The penalty for loanshark harassment for first-time offenders is a jail term of up to five years, along with a fine of between $5,000 and $10,000, and mandatory caning of up to six strokes.The police reiterated that they have zero tolerance for loanshark harassment.

A 70-year-old man fell unconscious when a fire broke out in a Circuit Road HDB flat early on Tuesday (July 28) morning and later died in hospital.The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a Facebook post that it was alerted to the blaze at a ninth-floor unit of Block 39 Circuit Road at about 2.05am.The fire involved items in the living room and black smoke was seen spreading outside the house.Firefighters forcefully entered the flat and rescued the man who was unresponsive.Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed on him before he was taken to Changi General Hospital, said SCDF.Meanwhile, about 80 residents from the block were evacuated as a precaution.According to Lianhe Zaobao, police and SCDF officers were seen conducting investigations inside the affected flat at about 9.30am.A neighbour living on the ninth floor said she had met the man two or three times and thought he was a friendly person.One resident alleged that the man's flat was cluttered, reported Zaobao.The cause of the fire is under investigation.[[nid:741198]]lim.kewei@asiaone.com

A suspicious item was found on the upper deck of the multi-storey car park in Eunos on Monday morning (July 27), prompting a response from the police and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).Marine Parade-Braddell Heights MP for the Geylang Serai division, Diana Pang, shared details of the incident in a Facebook post later that day.She said that an empty fuel tank was discovered at the multi-storey car park at Block 39 Eunos Crescent.Although the tank contained no liquid fuel, residual fuel vapours remained inside and could have posed a potential fire or explosion risk if it were exposed to an ignition source and not reported earlier, Pang said.«Investigations are ongoing, and the relevant agencies are looking into the incident,» she added.«Preliminary findings suggest that it may be related to the illegal storage or distribution of diesel or petrol.»Thanking the police and SCDF for their swift response and ongoing investigations, Pang also took the opportunity to remind residents to remain vigilant.

The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) will launch a full-scale platform to verify the authenticity of online listings next year, said Senior Minister of State for National Development and Transport Sun Xueling at the Singapore Estate Agents Conference 2026 on Tuesday (July 28). This is a move aimed at tackling fake, duplicate and unauthorised listings.Announcing the measure, Sun said the initiative forms part of broader efforts by the Ministry of National Development (MND) and CEA to raise professional standards, enhance transparency in the property industry and give consumers greater clarity and choice.Verification, ratings and direct listingsThe new platform will conduct backend verification checks and assign a unique code to property listings before they are published.The platform builds on the work of the Alliance for Action on Accurate Property Listings, following a common concern by both property agents and consumers on the prevalence of inaccurate, fake, duplicate and unauthorised property listings, said a CEA spokesperson.

A $7 QuickPick ticket has won the more than $5.9 million jackpot in the Toto draw on Monday (July 27). According to Singapore Pools, the sole Group 1 winning share of $5,900,838 came from a QuickPick System 7 entry bought through the Singapore Pools' account betting service.The winning numbers:  22, 23, 30, 36, 44 and 48, with the additional number 28.Four winning shares also took home the Group 2 prize, with each share receiving $156,797.The draw also saw 241 Group 3 winners, each receiving $1,790. There were 611 Group 4 winners, who each took home $385, while 12,154 Group 5 winners received $50 each. A total of 16,502 Group 6 winners won $25 each, and 219,617 Group 7 winners received $10 each.The next Toto draw will be held on July 30, with an estimated top prize of $1 million.

An elderly man was filmed wrestling with a carpark gantry barrier in Chinatown, eventually breaking it.A video of the incident was uploaded to Instagram on Sunday (July 26) by Sgfollowsall, and has since garnered over 153,000 views and 160 comments.The incident reportedly occurred at the carpark of People's Park Complex, though it is unclear when it occurred.The video appears to be filmed by a person in a vehicle at the carpark exit, and at least one other vehicle can be seen stalled while the man blocks the exit.The clip shows the man forcefully pushing the barrier upwards, before pushing it sideways and snapping off the longer section of the boom arm.He then places the broken off piece onto the curb next to the gantry, before attempting to push the shorter piece upwards.The man also attempts to break the shorter piece by pressing down on it, but to no avail.Towards the end of the video, the man is also seen approaching the access terminal and pressing a button, likely to speak to staff through the intercom.

A claw machine operator has filed a police report after a man and his son were caught on camera shaking its claw machines and stealing the fallen prizes. The incident occurred on Saturday (July 25) at around 1.36pm at the FortuneClaw claw machines on the first floor lobby at Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre, reported Lianhe Zaobao. Fang (transliterated), 35, told the Chinese newspaper that he discovered one of the claw machine's camera lenses was broken. He then reviewed the closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage to find out what happened. The CCTV footage showed a family of four standing in front of a row of claw machines. A man, presumably the father, is seen reaching up and grabbing the top of one machine before giving it a forceful shake, causing multiple prizes to fall. A shorter man, believed to be his son, then imitates him, shaking the machine in the same manner.Another clip shows the son taking a plastic box and plush toy from a second machine and hands one to a younger boy. [[nid:710594]]

Housing developers undertaking large-scale complex projects, including larger collective sale redevelopments, will now have more time to build and sell off all the units in the development.«We want to incentivise private developers to intensify their use by rejuvenating ageing residential sites, including larger sites where redevelopment will require a longer duration,» said Minister for National Development Chee Hong Tat at the Singapore Economic Review Conference held at Orchard Hotel Singapore on Tuesday (July 28).Under new rules that take effect on Wednesday (July 29), developers of projects yielding between 700 and 1,399 residential units will have their completion and sale timelines extended to six years, from 5.5 years currently. Projects yielding at least 1,400 residential units will have their completion and sale timelines extended to seven years.«These changes are intended to set the right incentives for developers to rejuvenate larger estates, so that we can encourage more than rejuvenation, and achieve an outcome which is good for society as a whole,» Chee explained.

While suicide deaths showed a general decline across most age groups, there was a 50 per cent increase among adults aged 30 to 39.There were 99 such deaths in this age group in 2024, up from 66 recorded the year before.The final number of cases in 2024 is 441, said the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) in its Report on Registration of Births and Deaths (2025) on Monday (July 27). There were 434 reported cases in 2023.The authority had previously reported a preliminary number of 314 suicide deaths in 2024 due to pending legal investigations.With the finalised number at 441, the suicide death rate is 8.23 per 100,000 residents — an increase of 0.04 from 2023.Majority of cases — 65.8 per cent or 290 — were men, as was the case in past years.It is the leading cause of death among youths aged 10 to 29, and the second leading cause of death in adults aged 30 to 39.The preliminary number of suicide deaths in Singapore for 2025 is 256, according to ICA.

The 15-month wait-out period for private property owners buying HDB resale flats, which was introduced in 2022 as a temporary measure to moderate demand, has been removed with immediate effect.  a { text-decoration: none; color: #464feb; } tr th, tr td { border: 1px solid #e6e6e6; } tr th { background-color: #f5f5f5; } Announcing this at the Singapore Economic Review Conference held at Orchard Hotel Singapore on Tuesday (July 28), Minister for National Development Chee Hong Tat said that the Government's policies must evolve and adapt to society's changing needs. The change means private residential property owners (PPOs) and former PPOs purchasing a non-subsidised HDB resale flat without an HDB housing loan will no longer be subject to the 15-month wait-out period.He said that the Government takes a pragmatic approach to policymaking and will do what works best for Singapore based on evidence rather than ideology.«This includes changing course when faced with a new situation or operating environment,» he added.

HONG KONG — HSBC will hire more than 100 artificial intelligence specialists and 100 wealth managers in Singapore, deepening investment in two areas central to the bank's Asian growth strategy as it expands higher-fee businesses and accelerates AI adoption.The announcement come as HSBC moves to launch a new AI centre in Singapore in the second half of 2026, the bank said in a statement on Monday.The banking group's Chief Executive Georges Elhedery said in May that AI would destroy and create certain jobs in the financial industry, and that the bank was retraining its workforce to meet the challenge.HSBC said it would recruit talent across natural language processing, data science, AI governance and human-centred design. The centre will initially focus on personalising customer wealth management conversations, introducing agentic treasury solutions, and expanding AI-enabled digital payments.Rival Standard Chartered announced in May that its AI transformation would eliminate about 8,000 jobs internally.HSBC is also looking to boost its local wealth management operation by adding another 100 relationship managers, a company spokesperson said.

A dispute over leaving a child stroller at a Tampines HDB block escalated into a case of alleged assault, with a woman claiming that she was slapped.The incident occurred outside a pre-school on the ground floor of Block 878 Tampines Avenue 8 last Friday (July 24) morning, reported Shin Min Daily News.A resident, who declined to be named, said the woman, whose child attends the pre-school, alleged that she had been slapped twice by a man for leaving the stroller along the corridor.The man and woman had allegedly argued about the issue earlier on Thursday, the resident said.«They argued for a while, and the man kept yelling and swearing. There was no physical conflict then. The next morning, I heard them arguing again, and this time the police were called,» Shin Min quoted the resident as saying.The police said they received a call for assistance regarding a case of assault at about 9.35am. A 61-year-old man is assisting with ongoing investigations.According to the news report, the pre-school has a sign pasted on a window which asks parents not to leave their strollers outside.

The defence ministries of Singapore and Australia on Monday (July 27) announced the signing of an arrangement to strengthen defence industrial cooperation, which they said will support their two countries' armed forces.Singapore's Ministry of Defence (Mindef) said in a statement that the Industrial Base Resiliency Arrangement (IBRA) was signed during Coordinating Minister for Public Services and Minister for Defence Chan Chun Sing's working visit to Australia for the 15th Singapore-Australia joint ministerial committee meeting.The arrangement was signed by Permanent Secretary for Defence Development Melvyn Ong and Australia's National Armaments Director Nadine Williams, and witnessed by the two defence ministers.