Blog Posts by Melissa Aw

A 24-year-old maid was found motionless at the foot of Blk 421 Canberra Road on Monday morning.

According to her employer, the Myanmar maid fell to her death from the 13th storey flat in Sembawang when she tried to run away, but fell out of the kitchen window instead, reported The Straits Times (ST).

Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said that they received a call at 6:20am and dispatched one ambulance to the scene. They then found a female, with multiple injuries, lying on the ground floor.

Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene and the police are investigating it as an unnatural death.

Goh, the maid’s employer, said that she woke up around 6am to find her maid missing and suspected that she had run away, added ST.

The employer said she wanted the maid’s agency to take back the girl, who had been working for the family for two months, as the latter had been uncooperative, the paper reported.

This incident comes after an Indonesian maid was found dead at the foot of a flat in

[UPDATED 23 May 6.38p.m. to include that the government has accepted NWC's proposal]

The government has accepted the National Wages Council (NWC)'s proposal to impose a minimum pay raise for low-wage workers on Wednesday, and urged firms to take advantage of government grants for productivity improvement.

The proposal put forth by NWC on Monday had recommended that workers earning less than S$1,000 be given a pay increase of $50. The council had also recommended firms to give a built-in pay rise to all workers this year to help them cope with inflation.

According to The Sunday Times, the NWC had accepted a proposal from the National Trade Unions Congress (NTUC) to increase the pay of low-wage workers by $50 plus a percentage increase. The increment of $50 will be included as part of the workers’ basic pay -- not a one-off payment.

This is the first time since 1984 that the NWC has recommended a minimum amount for a pay hike.

The issue of wages has become a hot topic of discussion in

In line with International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) – which is celebrated every 17 May, a group of activists are again sounding a call for the Singapore government to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code.

Section 377A states that any two consenting men who commit "gross indecency" shall be punished with imprisonment for up to two years.

Maruah, a local human rights non-governmental organisation (NGO), called on the government to immediately repeal the section as it is the “critical first step” towards eliminating discrimination against homosexuals.

A heated debate on the issue began in 2007, when then Member of Parliament Siew Kum Hong filed a petition to repeal Section 377A, which he cited as discriminatory and a violation of constitutional safeguards on equal rights.

However, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee shot down the petition, highlighting that Singapore is a conservative society and “majority of [Singaporeans may] find homosexual

UPDATED (17 May: Age of Japanese crash victim corrected to 41)

The Japanese woman who was caught in the horrific three-vehicle accident in Bugis was reportedly robbed minutes before her death.

According to The Straits Times (ST), an eyewitness said that he saw a man pick up notes and coins discarded around the taxi which appeared to belong to Shigemi Ito, the female passenger of the taxi that a Ferrari rammed into at the junction of Rochor Road and Victoria in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Ito, who according to Lianhe Wanbao, was a student at Raffles Design Institute, was reportedly still alive at that point in time.

The 57-year-old eyewitness, who only wanted to be known as Lim, added that he estimated the man to have picked up cash amounting to about S$300, reported ST, which quoted a Lianhe Wanbao report.

Lim said that he ran to the accident scene after he heard a loud bang and he saw Ito crying out in pain as the man stole the money.

Ito, 41, died at the Singapore General

Despite the recent wave of deaths involving servicemen, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen maintained that his ministry and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) places a high priority on the safety of servicemen.

“Every incident resulting in injury or death is painful to us and gets top management priority, to make it right. We will spare no effort to investigate every incident thoroughly,” Ng said in Parliament on Monday.

Responding to a question raised on the safety of servicemen -- especially those with medical conditions -- Ng said that "a number of investigations have been activated" to determine the contributory causes of deaths involving Singapore's servicemen.

In the last month, three full-time servicemen have died in training camps.

The latest casualty is 20-year-old 3rd Sergeant Tan Mou Sheng, who died from his injuries at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital last Friday afternoon after he was run over by a jeep when the driver of the vehicle lost control of the wheel.

According to Ng, an independent

Relatives and friends of deceased Ferrari driver Ma Chi, who was involved in a three-vehicle pile-up on Saturday, gathered for his cremation at Mandai Crematorium on Monday afternoon.

About 18 people, including Ma’s younger brother, attended the cremation. Visibly absent were Ma’s pregnant wife as well as his mother, although both were at Ma’s wake at Mount Vernon earlier in the afternoon.

According to Chinese customs, an elderly person should not show respect to someone younger and, similarly, it is considered bad luck for Ma’s pregnant wife to attend his cremation.

Ma, a financial advisor from Sichuan, was behind the wheel of a red Ferrari on early Saturday morning when it slammed against a taxi, which subsequently cut into the lane of a passing motorcycle at the intersection of Rochor Road and Victoria Street in Bugis.

The three-vehicle accident killed two others -- taxi driver Cheng Teck Hock and his passenger, believed to be a 20-something Japanese woman.

A young woman reportedly

[UPDATE on 9 May, 4pm: adding statements from ComfortDelGro and Komoco Motors]

Hyundai Sonata car specialists from South Korea will be dispatched to help Singapore transport operator ComfortDelGro investigate why two of its taxis caught fire in separate incidents in the past two weeks.

On 24 April, a Comfort Hyundai Sonata taxi burst into flames in a tunnel on the Central Expressway (CTE), causing a massive traffic jam. Then on Tuesday a second such taxi caught fire along the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE). In both cases, no one was injured.

“We are very concerned about the safety of our drivers and their passengers. And given that this is the second such incident in recent weeks involving our Sonata taxis, we are doubling up efforts to make sure we pin point the cause,” said ComfortDelGro spokesperson Tammy Tan.

She said that the exact cause of the fire is still not known but several possibilities, including a shorting of the electrical circuitry, has not been ruled out.

The manufacturer of

Singapore tourism will get a new head from next month.
 
Lionel Yeo, who is now the deputy secretary of the Public Service Division (PSD) in the Prime Minister's Office, will take over as the new chief executive of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) on 1 June, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI).
 
The 39-year-old, who has been in the public sector for 16 years and is also the CEO and dean of the Civil Service College (CSC), will take over from Aw Kah Peng, who will step down at the end of this month to pursue her personal interests.
 
In its statement, the MTI recognised Aw’s contributions to Singapore's tourism development.
 
Under her leadership, the tourism sector made a sharp recovery from 2009’s financial downturn, turning in a stellar performance of S$18.9billion in tourism receipts in 2010 -- a 50 per cent increase over the previous year.
 
Aw was also instrumental in leading STB's new brand, YourSingapore, in 2010 and supporting the successful opening of the two Integrated