Swimmer Yip Pin Xiu wins Singapore's first gold in Paris Paralympic Games; Changi Airport great for red-eye flights: Singapore live news
We feature a curated selection of some of the biggest, most important, and fascinating news that’s making waves online.
Yahoo News Singapore
And that's a wrap. Thanks for tuning in. We'll catch y'all again tomorrow.
Hello to all our readers, Yahoo Singapore will be bringing you live news updates today.
First up, a huge congratulations to swimmer Yip Pin Xiu, who has won Singapore's first gold medal of the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Singapore also scores in a different kind of competition – it's ranked, in an entirely unofficial list, as one of the best airports to have a red-eye flight. Read on to find out why Changi Airport is great for tired travellers on nighttime flights.
Still on the topic of crime, a Singapore man had planned what he thought was the "perfect crime" by planting cannabis in his estranged wife's car. He had done so in the hopes of getting a divorce quicker, but has now been jailed.
Remember the billionaire Australian boss who went viral for banning his staff from working from home (WFH)? Now, Chris Ellison, of Australian mining company Mineral Resources, has said he doesn't want employees to leave the office to get a coffee.
The CCCS added that it initiated the investigation earlier this year under its fair trading laws after receiving several complaints on an online advertisement by Sterra in February 2024. In the ad, CCCS said, the company had falsely claimed that Singapore's tap water is unsafe for direct consumption without being filtered using water purifiers sold by Sterra.
Investigations by CCCS also revealed that Sterra had made other false and misleading representations on its website between February 2023 and March 2024, the watchdog said. These included:
a) False Country of Manufacture claims: Three models of air purifiers sold by Sterra were made in Singapore when they were in fact made in China.
b) Misleading "Korean" labelling: Two models of Sterra's water purifiers were marketed as "Korean" when they were neither sourced from nor manufactured in Korea, but were in fact manufactured in China.
c) False discounts: The "usual" (i.e. pre-discount) prices that Sterra claimed for comparison with its discounted price were not genuine previous prices and, in fact, never offered to any customer.
Do you own a Sterra purifier? Get more details on the Sterra issue here.
Esther Au Yong
Billionaire boss who banned WFH wants to stop staff from going out for coffee
Now, Chris Ellison, the managing director of Australian mining company Mineral Resources, has said he doesn't want employees to leave the office to get a coffee.
While touting the facilities of his company's two-year-old headquarters in Perth, Australia, he said, "I want to hold them captive all daylong. I don't want them leaving the building.
"I don't want them walking down the road for a cup of coffee, we figured out a few years ago how much that costs. Wandering out around lunchtime, we've got a restaurant in there [the office], we've also got a gym, and we've got other facilities that keep them glued in there."
Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) deputy director (operations) Datuk Nor Hisham Mohammad said that rescue personnel are working to remove debris and blockages over a 44m stretch from the sinkhole to Wisma Jakel to reach an object lodged along the span.
Read for more details on the search and rescue operation, which is in its eighth day today (Friday, 30 August).
Esther Au Yong
Catholic Pope Francis' itinerary on 2-week trip ending in Singapore
Next week, Pope Francis will embark on his most ambitious trip in 11 years since he began leading the Catholic Church.
He will visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore over the next fortnight.
Singapore's LTA will soon waive $10 admin charge for missed ERP payments settled within 5 days' grace
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Friday (30 August) that the administrative charge for missed Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) payments will be waived if the payments are settled within a five-day grace period. This will start from 1 October.
Now, motorists who fail to pay an ERP charge when they pass a gantry will receive a letter some days later, requiring that they pay a $10 administrative charge on top of the missed payment.
Singapore man planted cannabis in estranged wife's car in "perfect crime", gets jail time
In the hopes of getting a divorce quicker, a Singapore man had planned what he thought was the "perfect crime" by planting cannabis in his estranged wife's car.
The 37-year-old man had gotten married with his wife in 2021 but she moved out of their home in October 2022 after their relationship broke down.
After consulting lawyers, the man thought that it would be easier to get a divorce if one of them had a criminal record.
He was sentenced yesterday to three years and 10 months' jail for one count of possession of at least 216g of cannabis that was found in packets.
Local media reported that police were alerted to the case at 9.34am on Thursday (29 August), according to a statement put out by the Singapore Police Force (SPF).
However, before the police arrived, the restaurant staff had reportedly intervened and the 50-year-old woman had left.
Through CCTV footage, police cameras and ground enquiries, the police arrested the woman some nine hours later, SPF said.
While the 33-year-old woman was being interviewed at the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) duty office at Woodlands Checkpoint, she attempted to reach for the firearm of an ICA officer. She was immediately placed under arrest.
Esther Au Yong
Singapore is one of the best airports to have a red-eye flight. Why?
Singapore also scores in a different kind of competition – though entirely unofficial.
He is impressed by the array of food and lounges. "Singapore Changi Airport is always the leading G.O.A.T. of local food stalls," Ott said. "Some of the best local food is at the airport because famous places in Singapore set up locations there."
Find out what else he's saying about Changi Airport and which other airports around the world made the list.
Esther Au Yong
Swimmer Yip Pin Xiu defends paralympics title, wins Singapore's first Paris 2024 gold
The swimmer has won Singapore's first gold medal at the 2024 Paris Paralympics with her swim of 2:21.73 at the 100m backstroke S2 final. This is her third successive win of the event.
A former model who was a finalist in the Miss Switzerland contest was allegedly murdered and "pureed" in a blender by her husband, officials in Switzerland are reported to have said. Kristina Joksimovic, 38, was found dead in her home in Binningen, near Basel, Switzerland, in February this year. According to local news outlet BZ Basel, a man named Thomas, 41, had an appeal for release from custody denied by the Federal Court in Lausanne on Wednesday after he reportedly confessed to killing his wife, with whom he had two children.
Police have released video footage of an American woman being arrested for eating a cat – 170 miles away from Springfield, Ohio where Donald Trump claimed Haitian immigrants were devouring pets.
Malaysian police said on Friday they will summon the top management of an Islamic business group, after children rescued from charity homes allegedly run by the firm suffered injuries consistent with sexual and physical assault. Police this week rescued 402 children and youths in raids carried out at 20 premises that they said were operated by Islamic conglomerate Global Ikhwan Services and Business (GISB). GISB has said they did not run the homes and denied allegations of sexual abuses at the properties.
Following Linda Sun’s firing in 2023 and a host of charges filed against her and her husband in an indictment unsealed this month, the New York state government is grappling with having employed an alleged agent for the Chinese government – and raising questions on why it took so long to bring charges.
Pope Francis on Friday criticized both former U.S. President Donald Trump over his plan to deport millions of immigrants and Vice President Kamala Harris over her stance supporting abortion rights. Asked about the U.S. presidential election on his flight back to Rome from Singapore, the pope said not welcoming migrants is a "grave" sin, and likened having an abortion to an "assassination". He said U.S. Catholics would have to "choose the lesser evil" when they vote in November, without elaborating.
Pope Francis wrapped up his visit to Singapore on Friday by praising its tradition of interfaith harmony, closing out his four-nation trip through Asia with the same message of tolerance that he delivered at the start. Francis presided over a gathering of young people from some of the religious traditions that are present in Singapore, where mosques, Buddhist temples and Christian churches stand side-by-side among the city-state’s iconic skyscrapers. In a sign he was enjoying himself, Francis ditched his speech and urged the youths to take risks, even if it means making mistakes.
"Why are you yelling?” the reporter asked as Trump's senior adviser refused to clarify the source of information he was spreading about Venezuela’s crime rate.
A leaked audio recording of a heated exchange between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the family of a hostage killed by Hamas is sparking reaction in Israel. CNN’s Nic Robertson reports.
Investigators working to pinpoint the cause of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse discovered a loose cable that could have caused electrical issues on the Dali, the massive cargo ship that lost power and disastrously veered off course before striking the bridge. When disconnected, the problematic cable triggered an electrical blackout on the ship similar to what happened as it approached the bridge on March 26, according to new documents released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board. The Dali was leaving Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka when its steering failed because of the power loss.
Machinists at Boeing voted Thursday to go on strike, another setback for the giant aircraft maker whose reputation and finances have been battered and now faces a shutdown in production of its best-selling airline planes. Boeing responded that it was “ready to get back to the table to reach a new agreement.” Very little has gone right for Boeing this year, from a panel blowing out and leaving a gaping hole in one of its passenger jets in January to NASA leaving two astronauts in space rather sending them home on a problem-plagued Boeing spacecraft.
Concern is growing that inflammatory rhetoric about Haitians could escalate into actual violence – something that many have traveled hundred of miles to escape.
Peruvians began three days of national mourning Thursday for polarizing former president Alberto Fujimori, who ruled his country with an iron fist and then spent 16 years in prison for crimes against humanity.Fujimori, who led Peru from 1990 to 2000, was released from prison on humanitarian grounds in December while serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity during his rule.