Cardiff City’s Perry Ng closer to Singapore national team dream; 'Digital licence plate' for unmanned aircraft weighing above 250g: Singapore live news

A 21-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man have been arrested and charged for alleged involvement in the death of their eight-month-old son, Trevor Neo Yu Hin.

The undisclosed unlawful act allegedly occurred on 1 September at Block 210 Hougang Street 21 where they all lived together as a family.

In a statement published earlier on Tuesday, the police said that at 12.40am (2 September) they were alerted to a case of death at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

A woman, Chloe Gan Ci Xuan, and man, Neo Jia Ming, were subsequently arrested in relation to the case.

You can read the full police statement, here.

There were around 10,500 Housing Board flats completed across 15 housing projects in 2024 – it was revealed 14 of these projects had been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The HDB announced on Monday they were expecting to complete about 18,000 flats across 24 projects this year.

“We are on track to deliver the remaining delayed projects within the coming six months,” said Desmond Lee, Minister for National Development, and Minister-in-Charge of Social Services Integration.

According to HDB, they have now completed about 94% (87 projects) of pandemic-delayed projects from October 2020 to August 2024.

Alkaff Breeze – comprising 353 units of 4-room and 5-room flats – was completed in June this year and is the first HDB housing project to be finished without any delay in 2024.

As of 15 August, 290 households of 340 booked units at Alkaff Breeze have collected the keys to their new homes.

Singapore recently introduced new curbs on public housing to boost affordability.

The next time you feel the itch for some tasty Thai food, FairPrice might be on your list of places to satisfy these cravings.

From November, FairPrice supermarkets will offer a wider selection of Thai food products as part of a strategic partnership with Central Food Retail Group (CFG) in Thailand.This will also include FairPrice's convenience stores Cheers and FairPrice Xpress as well as online platforms.

“Through this collaboration, we aim to bring the best of Thai products to Singaporean consumers, offering them a taste of our rich culinary heritage,” said Stephane Coum, CEO, Central Food Retail at Central Group.

CFG operates Tops which is Thailand’s largest supermarket chain.

Former transport minister S. Iswaran has failed in his third bid to make the prosecution provide all statements of every prosecution witness.

The Court of Appeal dismissed his latest request which followed two previous attempts – dismissed by an assistant registrar and a High Court judge – to obtain the statements.

Iswaran’s trial begins on 10 September and he faces a total of 35 charges comprising 32 counts of obtaining valuables as a public servant, two counts of corruption and one count of obstructing justice.

Cathay Pacific Airways were forced to cancel almost all of its scheduled flights from Hong Kong to Singapore on Tuesday.

The decision came after the airlines discovered a faulty engine component on some of its Airbus SE A350s.

The Hong Kong-Singapore service is synonymous with Cathay Pacific,and Tuesday’s disruption would have affected a significant number of business people and tourists.

Cathay has not yet provided extensive details on the faulty engine component but it is understood the problem first began several minutes after take-off on flight CX383 from Hong Kong to Zurich on Monday.

You can read a detailed explainer on what the issue may be with Cathay's A350 engines, here.

Sentosa’s Tanjong Beach reopened today less than three months after a large oil spill blackened Singapore’s southern coastline.

A Facebook post by Sentosa Development Corporation read: “After extensive cleanup efforts, Sentosa’s beaches are now fully open. A big thank you to everyone who made this possible.”

In mid-June a dredger boat hit a stationary cargo tanker, causing oil to leak into the sea and impacting Sentosa’s three beaches. Sentosa’s Siloso Beach was the first to reopen on 3 August followed by Palawan later in the month.

The oil slick was not limited to Sentosa and spread to multiple beaches around Singapore, including at East Coast Park.

Singapore’s ST Engineering is playing its part in the war to keep maliciously deceptive deepfakes in check.

On Tuesday at the annual InnoTech Conference in Marina Bay Sands, ST Engineering launched Einstein.AI which uses AI-powered tools to “counter the rapid and extensive spread of misinformation exacerbated by the growing accessibility of AI.”

ST Engineering claims Einstein.AI can validate the authenticity of information by detecting audio and video deepfakes as well as speeding up and automating fact-checking, among other things.

“Our AI-driven applications address some of the most pressing challenges of our time – from countering cybercrime to optimising emergency response and improving hospital operations,” said Low Jin Phang, president, Digital Systems at ST Engineering.

Deepfakes are an increasing problem for governments while the upcoming US presidential election is already seeing examples of the technology being used to impact how Americans cast their ballots.

Pope Francis has set off on his historic Asia Pacific tour which will see the 87-year-old appear in Singapore on 11 September.

The pontiff departed Rome on Monday and arrives in Jakarta today before making stops in Papua New Guinea, East Timor and finally Singapore over the course of 12 days.

The tour will cover around 32,000 kilometres making it the longest and farthest of Pope Francis’ 11 years leading the worldwide Catholic Church.

In Singapore, Pope Francis will preside over Papal Mass at National Stadium on 12 September.

“It is my hope that this visit of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, will bring renewed fervour to all Catholics in Singapore, uniting them in faith and mission, especially in these most challenging of times,” Cardinal William Goh was quoted as saying.

All tickets for the Papal Mass in Singapore have been allocated and there are a number of regulations attendees will need to follow on the day.

You can find more information about the restrictions, here.

Unmanned aircraft weighing above 250g will require a ‘digital licence plate’ to operate in Singapore from 1 December 2025, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS).

CAAS made the announcement on Monday saying the move “aims to further enhance aviation and public safety and security in Singapore.”

Unmanned aircrafts will need to be fitted with Broadcast Remote Identification (B-RID) devices which use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology to transmit information such as the aircraft’s position, serial number and the location of its operator.

CAAS revealed that most new unmanned aircraft in the market – including more than half of those registered in 2024 – are already equipped with built-in B-RID.

For unmanned aircraft currently without B-RID, the agency hopes to ease adoption by offering to fully cover the cost and installation of the module – but you must apply for the unit between 1 January and 31 March 2025.

The agency added that “users who do not submit an application to CAAS within this time will have to procure a compliant B-RID module and bear all applicable costs on their own.”

These modules are expected to cost between $120 and $250.

The number of unmanned aircraft registered in Singapore has increased from 8,205 in December 2020 to 24,567 in July 2024, according to statistics provided by CAAS.

You can find out more about the proposed implementation plan here.

Members of the public have also been invited to provide feedback and comments via the Reach website here.