Singaporean luxury hotelier Ong Beng Seng was accused of being involved in what was dubbed by reporters of the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) as "an orgy of corruption" in the Maldives. Ong, who is the co-founder and managing director of Hotel Properties Limited (HPL), which owns the Four Seasons and Hilton hotels in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the United …

24-year-old Thai-born Ekawit Tangtrakarn was sentenced to a fine of S$6,000 yesterday (18 Sep) for defaulting on his National Service (NS) obligations, marking the first prosecution of an NS defaulter who is no longer a Singapore citizen. Previously on 28 Aug, Ekawit pleaded guilty under the Enlistment Act for staying outside Singapore without a valid exit permit for 5½ years. …

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was arrested today (19 Sep) over a 1MDB-related scandal, one of which involves the siphoning of RM2.6bil from the state fund into his personal bank account. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) announced that it has made the arrest at its headquarters in the adminstrative capital of Putrajaya at 4.13 pm. The commission added that …

The decision of Singapore's largest taxi operator, ComfortDelGro, to adjust its levy structures against bookings recently has alarmed its cab drivers, as drivers begin to worry about the impact of the adjustments on their own earnings. From next Tuesday onwards (25 Sep), cab drivers under ComfortDelGro are obliged to pay a levy of 3.9 per cent for every booking that …

The names of nine candidates that make up the new batch of Nominated Members of Parliament (NMP) were announced yesterday (17 Sep) by Leader of the House Grace Fu. Ms Fu, who is part of the Special Select Committee that chose the NMPs, noted that the nine candidates were picked for their "good credentials in their respective fields" and will …

In a submission to TOC, a reader has raised his concerns regarding the dubiousness of a particular petition that calls for the retention of Section 377A in the Penal Code – a piece of legislation that criminalises sexual relations between two male adults – which has been a hotly debated subject of late. The reader raised several "serious issues" regarding "this …

A reader who goes by the name Mr Liew has written to TOC regarding the frequent lift breakdowns at Blk 339A Kang Ching Road. Mr Liew reported that this is not the first time that such a major malfunction has occurred, and that despite numerous complaints have been made by residents to the Jurong-Clementi Town Council, the problem remains a recurring …

A man was sentenced to 14 months of jail yesterday (17 Sep) for assisting his longtime friend, who is formerly an engineer with the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), in cheating the Government of more than S$632,000. Jeevan Arumugam, 48, testified before District Judge Shaifuddin Saruwan that his actions resulted from "a pure lapse of judgement," and that Rajkumar …

Golf courses and certain parks could potentially serve as remedies to the lack of space to run funeral parlours, according to panellists in a discussion on the future of funeral parlours in Singapore at Mount Vernon Columbarium on Wednesday (12 Sep). Funeral director and deputy chairman of Ang Chin Moh Group, Mr Ang Ziqian, said:  "Each golf course has 80 …

President-elect of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People's Justice Party) Anwar Ibrahim has expressed his view that it is crucial for Malaysia and Singapore to "work together" on contentious issues such as the water agreement and the KL-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project, in contrast to current Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's approach which is often interpreted as adversarial. In an interview …