The court has recently granted divorce to a 70-year-old Singaporean retiree after his wife’s sudden obsession with cats drove him out of their home in 2006.
Growing feline collection: How it began
The couple had been facing problems since 1997, stated District Judge Sheik Mustafa on May 21, and had been estranged from each other for 15 years.
According to reports, the husband was said to have tolerated his wife’s cats for almost a decade.
The 67-year-old woman developed a cat obsession after dreaming of her late mother who told her to be kind to the cats, the husband said.
Believing that looking after them was her only way to “cross into Paradise”, she would go around feeding stray cats and bring them back home.
“This feline collection created quite a nuisance. The cats roamed around the home freely. They were not toilet-trained and would urinate and defecate indiscriminately,” Judge Sheik Mustafa noted.
The recent slew of outrage and unrest in the United States has cast the spotlight on displays of racism and xenophobia, something several Singaporeans have seen mirrored in their own country.
Against the onslaught of bigotry — whether due to ignorance or prejudice — in their very own backyards, some people in Singapore have taken to educating themselves and others instead.
A poignant post on a father’s teachings to his daughter about race and nationality went viral after it was posted on Facebook on Tuesday (June 2).
From sharing links to vital resources to drowning out racist hashtags with K-pop fancams, the power of social media in spreading awareness of pertinent social issues is undeniable.
But it can also be a double-edged sword.
In response to “countless” tweets and DMs on racial issues, YouTuber Preetipls declared in a series of tweets on June 3 that she was tired of being treated as the “keeper of the Indian race”.
The messages she had received included racist tweets, people asking her to “call this person out” and those asking for her thoughts on certain issues.
“What do I think? I am f****** exhausted,” Preetipls, whose real name is Preeti Nair, wrote.
To illustrate her point, Preeti brought up socialite Jamie Chua, who received backlash over an Instagram Story griping about her “disturbing nightmare” involving migrant workers “rushing into [her] house” back in April.
The Ministry of Health has preliminarily confirmed an additional 517 cases of Covid-19 infection in Singapore on Thursday (June 4), the majority of whom are Work Permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories.
There are 15 community cases – two Singaporeans/Permanent Residents, and 13 Work Pass holders.
All 15 cases were close contacts of earlier confirmed cases, and have already been placed on quarantine. They are all asymptomatic, but MOH had swabbed them to confirm and verify their status.
More details will be released tonight.
For the latest updates on the coronavirus, visit here.
SINGAPORE: A teenager accused of drinking from juice bottles before returning them to a supermarket shelf wants to claim trial to the charge, his newly hired lawyer told the court on Thursday (Jun 4).
However, defence counsel Dhillon Surinder Singh said he had only just taken on the case and spoken to the prosecution, so he will take further instructions.
“My client’s preliminary instructions are that he’s disputing the charge and claiming trial to the charge,” said Mr Singh.
“However, the prosecutor has appraised me of certain facts which I shall be liaising with him on after this mention. In the meantime, can we have a pre-trial conference date?”
District Judge Seah Chi-Ling fixed a pre-trial conference for the case on Jun 15.
The accused, 17-year-old Nigel Pang Yew Ming, faces one charge of public nuisance for taking two bottles of fruit juice from a shelf at NTUC FairPrice at 2 Bukit Batok West Avenue 7 on Feb 6.
He allegedly drank from them before returning them to the shelf, and his friend, 17-year-old Quek Xuan Zhi, filmed the incident and posted it on Instagram with the caption: “How to spread Wuhan virus”.
The police said that the video “caused public alarm and concern” and said they will “not tolerate any actions that stoke undue public alarm, especially during this period of heightened sensitivity”.
Pang initially intended to plead guilty, but had his plea rejected last month after he maintained that he did not know about nor consent to the caption “how to spread Wuhan virus”.
He said Quek usually got his approval for captions before posting them, but did not on this occasion.
“I really did not know that the caption ‘how to spread Wuhan’ was being added until it went viral, then I realised it was being added,” he said on May 22.
The penalty for public nuisance is a maximum jail term of three months, a fine of up to S$2,000 or both.
The prosecution had previously said that he intended to ask for a probation suitability report, but reserved his final decision.
Pang’s friend Quek will return to court for a further mention of his case on Jun 19.
Singapore may face the biggest dengue outbreak ever, warns the National Environment Agency (NEA), “unless collective community action is taken”.
It issued a release saying the number of weekly cases is expected to exceed the historical high of 891. The 735 cases last week was the highest in more than five years.
Since Sunday, another 291 people have been infected.
As of 3pm on Tuesday (June 2), there had been 9,261 infections – far more than double the number last year for the same period.
The NEA statement said: “The number of dengue cases this year is expected to exceed the 15,998 cases reported in 2019, and may even surpass the 22,170 cases reported in 2013.”
In the past two months, another five people have died from dengue, bringing the total number of deaths this year to 12.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) said the 12 people who died after getting the mosquito-borne disease were aged between 56 and 80 years old. Of them, 10 worked or resided in active dengue clusters.
Last year, 20 people died of dengue.
There are now 176 active dengue clusters, the biggest at Woodleigh with 181 people infected.
SINGAPORE: About 32,000 healthy workers have been moved from dormitories to Government-provided temporary housing to “further control the transmission in the dormitories”, said Minister of State for Manpower Zaqy Mohamad in Parliament on Thursday (Jun 4).
The temporary accommodation includes sports halls, vacant Housing and Development Board (HDB) blocks, army camps, floating hotels and private apartments slated for redevelopment. Each location has an on-site isolation area.
He was responding to questions from Mr Dennis Tan and Mr Christopher de Souza on how the Government ensures the safety and health of foreign workers and the isolation of workers infected with COVID-19.
For residents who need medical care, they will be sent to regional medical posts, Public Health Preparedness Clinics or nearby hospitals depending on their condition, said Mr Zaqy.
Those who do not need further medical attention may be housed in isolation areas on-site until they have recovered, while those tested for COVID-19 will be housed in a swab isolation facility until test results are known.
Onsite medical facilities for workers at foreign worker dormitory Avery Lodge. (Photo: Singapore Ministry of Manpower)
Those who test positive will be transferred to the appropriate care facility.
“In the medium term, the Government will continue to build up more temporary housing accommodations to reduce the density in the existing dormitories,” he said, adding that the new dormitories will have enough sick bays and isolation rooms to quickly isolate sick or infected workers.
The measures came after large clusters of COVID-19 cases emerged in foreign worker dormitories in Singapore, with more than 32,000 workers in dormitories testing positive for the coronavirus.
About half of them have recovered, while the vast majority of the rest are recovering well. Only one currently requires hospital intensive care, said Mr Zaqy.
“Regardless of where infected workers are housed, all migrant workers living in dormitories have access to medical care and attention,” he said.
A migrant worker sits on his bed in temporary living quarters for essential migrant workers at a train station construction site during a media tour organised by the Land Transport Authority on May 5, 2020. (File photo: Reuters/Edgar Su)
Workers, who have been registered as providing essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic, relax in their temporary living quarters during a media tour in Singapore on May 5, 2020. (Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
ISOLATING FOREIGN WORKERS
Up until early April, dormitory operators were required to house residents under a leave of absence or stay-home notice in a section of the dormitory separate from other residents, or in dedicated rooms.
The Manpower Ministry had instructed all dormitories to set aside isolation facilities since Jan 29, said Mr Zaqy.
“Following the emergence of large clusters of infection in certain dormitories, movement in out of such dormitories was restricted to minimise cross-infections in both directions,” he said.
For dormitories with limited transmission, close contacts of infected workers continue to be sent to government quarantine facilities or community care facilities in centralised locations.
In other dormitories, spaces were reconfigured to house workers suspected or confirmed to be infected.
As Singapore faces economic uncertainty brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, Singaporeans will get financial support to tide them over these trying times.
2.8 million Singaporeans will be receiving cash payments under the Care and Support Package, as announced in the Unity and Resilience Budgets earlier this year.
In a press release on Thursday (June 4), the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said that eligible Singaporeans will receive payments of $300 or $600 from June 18.
To check the amount that you’ll be receiving, check ou the Singapore Budget portal here.
These will be paid via PayNow (NRIC), to enable Singaporeans to receive government payouts via direct bank crediting in a fast and convenient manner, MOF said.
Those who have yet to register their NRIC with PayNow can do so via their bank’s mobile banking application or Internet banking platform by June 11.
Shake Shack fans will soon be able to get their hands on their favourite burgers and milkshakes in town. The American burger joint will open their third outlet in Singapore at Liat Towers. PHOTO: Shake Shack SingaporeThis will be the first Shake Shack with alfresco seating options and you can expect to find their popular offerings such as the ShackBurger and their frozen custard Concretes and Chick’ n Shack.
The chain’s other outlets are located in Jewel Changi Airport and at 89 Neil Road.
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