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A $580 basic toilet cleaning course on the SkillsFuture portal drew ridicule from netizens this week, but agencies said such classes are part of mandatory training requirements for cleaners. In response to queries, SkillsFuture Singapore and the National Environment Agency (NEA) said in a joint statement on Feb 22 that these classes teach existing and prospective cleaners "essential skills" for the washing of restrooms. The 20 or so such classes found on the SkillsFuture portal range from basic to advanced and take between 30 and 40 hours to complete. Before subsidies, most basic courses cost between $100 and $600. After...

If you can't handle spice, you might want to skip this new coffee craze in China. A coffee shop in China has a bizarre beverage on its menu — chilli coffee. Jiangxi's Spicy Chilli Latte, a spice-infused coffee, was launched by Jingshi Coffee, a coffee chain in Jiangxi province, eastern China last December, South China Morning Post reported. A clip posted by Chinese video platform Pear Video on Weibo, showed a Jingshi Coffee employee adding sliced peppers and some hot pepper powder in a cup of iced latte before serving it. According to local media, the popular beverage costs about...

Is she a bird whisperer? When an unexpected 'visitor' wreaked havoc in a house late at night, one maid went beyond the call of duty to save the day. A video shared by TikTok user Pakalupap1t00 on Thursday (Feb 15) showed his family ducking for cover as a bird flew around their flat. While his dad "hid inside a room" and his mother, sister and brother screamed in fear, their domestic helper appeared to be unfazed. "It's just a bird," she quipped as she tried to catch the bird. After 'exploring' various areas of the flat, the bird took a...

Participants in the I Quit programme, designed to help them quit smoking, need not worry about being fined or prosecuted as it does not presume they have or use vaping products. But if they are caught using or possessing such products, then they will not be immune from criminal prosecution. Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary said this on Feb 16 in Parliament when responding to a question from Associate Professor Jamus Lim (Sengkang GRC). Prof Lim had asked whether participants in I Quit, the smoking cessation programme by the Health Promotion Board, were offered immunity from prosecution....

An airline passenger has been accused of swiping $23,000 in cash from carry-on luggage belonging to his fellow travelers during a short flight from Vietnam to Singapore. Zhang Xiuqiang, a 52-year-old Chinese national, was arrested at Changi Airport Saturday and slapped with three theft counts on suspicion of ransacking the bags of three passengers. The suspect and victims were traveling from Ho Chi Minh City to Singapore aboard a flight operated by Scoot Airline, the low-budget subsidiary of Singapore Airlines. During the two-hour flight, Zhang pilfered about $123 from one passenger’s backpack and helped himself to nearly $21,000 that he...

In trying to subdue a python and prevent it from potentially hurting others, one man ended up getting bitten by it instead. A python was spotted inside a drain about four to five metres from a coffee shop at Block 66 Kallang Bahru on Thursday (Nov 16) evening, reported Shin Min Daily News. Worried that the python would enter the coffee shop and harm the other patrons, a group of diners decided to try and pull it out of the drain. One of them, a 42-year-old construction worker surnamed Huang, told Shin Min that the group spent about 20 minutes...

Three Arrows Capital co-founder Su Zhu was arrested in Singapore while trying to leave the country. Su Zhu, the co-founder of the collapsed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), was arrested in Singapore on Friday. Zhu was taken into custody while attempting to leave the country from Singapore’s Changi Airport, as reported earlier by Bloomberg. Teneo, the liquidation firm in charge of liquidating 3AC’s assets, says it received a committal order against Zhu after he failed to comply with a court order that compelled him to cooperate with the liquidation process. That committal order directs Singaporean police to arrest...

For years, the World Health Organization has considered the Nipah virus to be a “priority pathogen” because it has the potential to cause a worldwide pandemic. Thankfully, up to this point that has not happened, but now an outbreak in India is making headlines all over the globe. Two victims have already died, and there are four others that have tested positive. A five kilometer containment zone has been established around the homes of the two men that died, and schools and businesses in the region are being forced to shut down. Authorities are hoping that such extreme measures will...

For years, the World Health Organization has considered the Nipah virus to be a “priority pathogen” because it has the potential to cause a worldwide pandemic. Thankfully, up to this point that has not happened, but now an outbreak in India is making headlines all over the globe. Two victims have already died, and there are four others that have tested positive. A five kilometer containment zone has been established around the homes of the two men that died, and schools and businesses in the region are being forced to shut down. Authorities are hoping that such extreme measures will...

They are clearly not afraid of heights. A condominium resident was astonished to be visited by monkeys even though she lives on the 15th storey. Stomp contributor Ong shared a video of about five of the primates hanging out around her balcony on Aug 18 at about 9.30am. "I just wanted to share a rare sight in our estate yesterday," said the Stomp contributor, who lives at Sant Ritz condo in Potong Pasir. "We were astonished that the monkeys could actually climb this high as we are living on the 15th floor." A day later, videos were also posted on...

By now, just about everyone and their mother’s brother’s uncle’s sister’s cousin twice removed has heard the phrase, “go woke, go broke.” And while it’s been a most excellent catchphrase, the truth of it has been somewhat of a mixed bag. Until this year. Thanks to the boycott of Bud Light in the wake of its partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, along with the rejection of Democrats and progressives’ constant efforts to force twisted views of sexuality — as with drag queen story hours — down the throats of children across the country, people are voting with their wallets....

A mom is missing after she fell off a Royal Caribbean cruise ship Monday during a voyage from Malaysia to Singapore, officials said. Reeta Sahani, 64, was vacationing with her husband Jakesh Sahani, 70, on the Spectrum of the Seas when he woke up in the middle of the night and noticed his wife was missing from the cabin, the Strait Times reported. The vessel’s overboard detection system revealed that something had gone overboard and the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre was notified about 7:50 a.m. Monday that a passenger “had fallen overboard in the Singapore Strait,” according to the Maritime...

Singapore City: Human Right Advocates have shared that Singapore will be executing a woman for the first time in 19 years. The Singaporean national was found guilty of drug trafficking and will be facing capital punishment for her crime tomorrow - July 28, 2023. Saridewi Djamani, 45, was found guilty of trafficking around 30g (1.06oz) of heroin in 2018. Djamani is the second drug convict to be executed in the past three days. Before her, Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, 56, was executed at Singapore's Changi Prison and has been buried by the authrauthorities. He was sentenced to death in 2018...

At 23, the most people would expect to go through is heartbreak — but this woman had an unexpected bout of heart failure which nearly took her life. On April 22, Kang Ziying felt a sudden pain in her chest alongside dizziness and vomiting which prompted her to seek medical help. Kang, a student at Republic Polytechnic, was immediately warded as her condition quickly became life-threatening. Kang's electrocardiogram showed that she had an accelerated heart rate. Her breathing also became more laborious, and the last thing she could recall was being wheeled off into an operating theatre. According to the...

(Australian Space Agency) A massive metal object found drifting off the shore of a remote beach in Western Australia is awash in mystery as officials try to figure out where it came from. Police have been guarding the mysterious thingamajig since it was discovered by baffled locals this last weekend about 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Perth. The object appears to be human-made, although it has clearly fallen into disrepair. About 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) wide and nearly 3 meters long, the cylinder's sides are covered in barnacles, its base a mess of fragmented metal. On the white sandy...

The grass ain't always greener on the other side. It took a month-long trip to the US and Canada for TikTok user Sophieonggg to fully grasp that life in Singapore is actually pretty good. It seems the difference between some of her North American adventures and what she would experience back home was pretty stark. On Monday (July 10), Sophieonggg posted on TikTok a diary of some of the more unpleasant experiences she had during the trip. She labelled it as "super different" before noting that Singapore will always be her home. Dirty, in every sense of the word While...

The gruesome sight of a monitor lizard eating a dead cat has left netizens heartbroken. Taking to Facebook on the Wildlife @Pasir Ris & vicinity page on Wednesday (June 21), Warren Seah shared that he took the photos of the incident at Tampines Eco Green on April 20. "The cleaner pointed out this monitor lizard feasting on the carcass of a black cat," the man said, adding that the cat's head can still be seen in the photos. Seah did not share how the cat had ended up as the monitor lizard's meal. The Facebook post has garnered almost 200...

Malaysian police said they would ask Interpol to locate Ms Chia, as they investigate her for incitement and offensive online content. Ms Chia - who grew up in Singapore - called involving Interpol "ridiculous". Interpol has not responded to questions from the BBC on whether it would act on the request for assistance from Malaysian police. Ms Chia had joked in a viral video that Malaysian jets "cannot fly", referring to the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared in 2014 - a sensitive topic in the country. Ms Chia mentioned MH370 in the context of the long-running rivalry between Singapore and...

There's some monkey business going on at this goreng pisang stall in Changi Village. A monkey was recently caught stealing bananas from the hawker, leaving the stallholder feeling helpless after its "friends" came back for more. A TikTok video shared on June 2 showed the primate stealthily grabbing a banana, climbing up to a beam and enjoying the fruit of its "labour", even when it was surrounded by pigeon repellents. "Respect the hustle," said the TikTok user who posted the clip, which has since garnered over 200,000 views. Several netizens appeared to be tickled by this monkey heist. But it...

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he tested Covid positive for a second time on Thursday morning. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has tested positive for Covid-19 again, just weeks after he caught the disease. "I feel fine but I am afraid I have turned Covid-19 positive again," he said in an Instagram post on Thursday (June 1) morning. "My doctors say it is a Covid rebound, which happens in 5-10 per cent of cases. It is still infectious although the risk is not high compared to the initial infection." PM Lee said that the doctors have advised him to...