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SINGAPORE – From Wednesday (March 4), travellers who had been to South Korea, northern Italy and Iran within the last 14 days will not be allowed to enter or transit through Singapore.

Singaporeans, residents and long-term pass holders who had been to these places in the last 14 days will be issued a Stay-Home Notice when they return.

National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said on Tuesday (March 3) that the definition of suspect cases has also been expanded.

From 11.59pm on Wednesday, all travellers entering Singapore who have fever or other symptoms of respiratory illness may be required to undergo a Covid-19 swab test at the checkpoint.

They can carry on with their journeys immediately after undergoing the test but should not mingle.

The test results could take between three and six hours. During this period, the travellers will be advised to minimise contact with others as a precautionary measure.

Travellers will be contacted and told their test results and those who test positive will be taken to hospital in an ambulance.

Short-term visitors who refuse to undergo the test will be denied entry.

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SINGAPORE – A man, who was sentenced to jail and caning in 1999 for molesting a seven-year-old girl, went back to his old ways and outraged the modesty of a family friend’s young daughter about five years later.

On separate occasions between 2004 and 2008, he committed sexual offences against the girl and her two sisters when they attended a playhouse which his wife operated.

A district court heard that the three girls were then between six and 10 years old.

On Tuesday (March 3), the 65-year-old man, who has been diagnosed with “paedophilia disorder”, pleaded guilty to two molestation charges and one count of committing an indecent act on a child.

District Judge Christopher Goh then sentenced him to 26 months and eight weeks’ jail.

Due to a gag order, the man cannot be named to protect the girls’ identities.

Referring to the earlier offences, Deputy Public Prosecutor Marshall Lim said the man was working as a private tutor in 1996 when he molested one of his pupils, a seven-year-old girl, in his home.

He was sentenced to 10 months’ jail and three strokes of the cane in 1999.

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SINGAPORE – Irish singer Ronan Keating removed a social media post about ships near Singapore not being allowed to dock because of the coronavirus after several online users said it was misleading.

“You say it best when you say nothing at all,” Instagram user Gweezilla commented on Keating’s post, referring to his hit song made famous by the romantic comedy film “Notting Hill”.

Keating, who shot to prominence in the 1990s as a member of boyband Boyzone, posted a photograph of about two dozen ships anchored off the city on Instagram and Twitter, with a caption that said the traffic was related to the coronavirus.

But ships at sea off the world’s second-busiest port are a common sight and many social media users were quick to tell him so.

The city-state’s Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) also responded to Keating’s post on Monday, saying a ship arrives or leaves Singapore every 2-3 minutes and that there can be about 1,000 ships there at any one time.

“#WeCouldntSayNothingAtAll,” the MPA added.

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SINGAPORE – A 24-year-old motorcyclist died after an accident with a minibus in West Coast on Tuesday morning (March 3).

The police said they were alerted to the accident at the junction of West Coast Road and Clementi Avenue 2 at 5.34am on Tuesday.

The motorcyclist was pronounced dead at the scene by a paramedic, the Singapore Civil Defence Force said.

The 62-year-old minibus driver was arrested for careless driving causing the death of the motorcyclist, the police said.

Photos of the aftermath of the accident on social media show the damaged motorcycle lying on the road with a blue police tent set up beside it.

Police are investigating the accident.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.

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He received a message on Facebook Messenger from a close friend asking to borrow some money.

He sought out an ATM immediately and made the transfer.

“The scammer asked for more, but all I had at the time was $2,000, so I transferred all of it,” said Marcus (not his real name), 28, who works in the finance industry.

Minutes after the transfer, he felt something was fishy when his “friend” insisted on having the receipt for the transaction sent via Facebook rather than WhatsApp.

It turned out that his friend’s Facebook account had been hacked.

Despite immediately making a police report, he never recovered the money.

Marcus is just one of the increasing number of victims of online scams.

To better fight the scourge, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will set up an inter-ministry committee on scams.

It will bring together representatives from the MHA, Ministry of Communications and Information, and Ministry of Trade and Industry, among others, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs Sun Xueling announced during the debate on her Ministry’s budget yesterday.

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Education in Singapore is unlike the past with the primary focus on exam results. In this 21st century, we are moving into a progressive education – it is not just about academic smarts to be considered as competent.

Students now are encouraged to think out of the box in approaching problems. The Ministry of Education has geared up on efforts to encourage holistic development, as young as in the preschool level.

Skills like self-discovery, engaged learning, curiosity and creativity are skills/qualities makes an individual successful and employable, in addition to hard skills and the know-how.

So when this post surfaced on Facebook, it got netizens on a heated debate.

Facebook user Siying Tan, shared her niece’s Primary 1 schoolwork that her brother sent over.

Along with the image, he asked Tan about what she thought about the questions. He also seemed to imply that they were crafted wrongly.

The question was asked in picture format for ducks or dogs, rather than explicitly writing “ducks” or “dogs”.

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SINGAPORE – A Singaporean student is appealing for eyewitnesses after claiming that he was attacked by a group of men in London over coronavirus-related racism.

Facebook user Jonathan Mok, who said he has been studying in London for two years, wrote about his ordeal in the wee hours of Tuesday (March 3) on his Facebook page.

He also posted two photos of himself showing his swollen left eye.

He said that the attack happened at about 9.15pm on Feb 24 in Oxford Street after he walked past a group of young men.

He said that he turned around and looked at them after he heard one of them said “coronavirus”.

The man then shouted “Don’t you dare look at me, you…” and punched him in the face repeatedly as passers-by tried to stop the group.

Mr Mok said that another man shouted “I don’t want your coronavirus in my country” before punching him in the face again.

The group fled before the police arrived.

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Amid heightened fears about the global spread of the novel coronavirus, Singapore has said it remains open for business and that it has put effective measures in place to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, the disease resulting from the virus.

Singapore’s ambassador to Indonesia Anil Kumar Nayar said that from an economic standpoint, a complete lockdown of the country was impossible and co-operation between countries in the region was needed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

“I have to emphasise that Singapore is safe as far as COVID-19 is concerned. Our Indonesian friends who have business in Singapore, who would like to visit Singapore, please continue to do so,” Kumar Nayar said at a press briefing on Monday in Jakarta.

Kumar Nayar said that authorities in Singapore would be strict about border control for inbound travellers and would pay closer attention to those who had travel histories to places that had seen an outbreak of the coronavirus, like China and South Korea.

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SINGAPORE – Two new coronavirus cases were confirmed in Singapore on Monday (March 2), bringing the total number of infected people here to 108.

One of the new cases, a 34-year-old Filipina, is the foreign domestic worker of a man linked to Wizlearn Technologies in Science Park II – a cluster that emerged last Friday. There are now 13 cases linked to the e-learning solutions company.

The other is a 68-year-old Singaporean woman, linked to Case 94. Case 94 is a family member of the Raffles Institution student who was announced as a confirmed case on Feb 27.

Meanwhile, four more patients have been discharged, bringing the total number of fully recovered to 78, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

The 68-year-old woman, Case 107, reported onset of symptoms on Feb 16 and sought treatment at two general practitioner clinics on Feb 20, 23 and 25.

She went to Tan Tock Seng Hospital on Feb 27 and was immediately isolated. She was confirmed to be infected on Sunday afternoon and is now warded at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

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