Local News

Another fake news alert? NTUC Foodfare released a statement about a misleading article by The Independent SG, which indirectly blamed the social enterprise for an old tenant's death. It said that the old man was overworked even though he tried to ask Foodfare to shorten the operating hours. Turns out, the old man did not make any appeal at all.

"The article talked about an elderly who operated stalls 6 and 7 at the Changi Airport terminal 4 food court. We will like to clarify that we have never received any request or appeal from the owner of stalls 6 and 7 to shorten operating hours. The screenshots of emails shown in the article, also were not emails in correspondence with the owner of stalls 6 and 7."

It also got to know from the old man's son that the family did not make any complaints to the media.

According to the statement, an outlet manager noticed that old Mr Fong looked unwell and asked him to seek medical help. "Later that evening, we were saddened to hear of Mr Fong's passing due to heart failure."

As a kind gesture, NTUC Foodfare rendered help to Mr Fong's family by waiving his pre-termination penalty. It reminded people not to believe the "inaccurate and misleading" article that "contains several untruths put together". 

Looks like something is brewing.

A Fitness First personal trainer's Instagram story went viral on 19 Nov 2018. The story was a photo of a lady supposedly ordering ice cream with the caption "Wtf so fat still wanna eat ice cream?? Disgusting". 

He then made a public apology through a posting on his Instagram account saying "I would like to sincerely apologise for my recent igstory post. 
I was too rash and understand the insensitive statement is uncalled for and offensive. I am deeply sorry if my comment hurt or offended anyone. 
As a trainer, I’m deeply committed to my duty to help people achieve their health and fitness goals and I’ll continue to do so in more appropriate ways from now."

However, Fitness First Singapore subsequently made a public announcement on their Facebook saying that the trainer has since been suspended while they investigate the matter.

When will people learn to stop shaming strangers for no good reason? It might just backfire on you instead.

Alternative news site The Online Citizen has announced its hiatus after getting its devices seized by the Singapore Police. The items were seized for investigations in an alleged criminal defamation case. 

"The equipment, which include desktop, mobile devices and laptops, was seized at the residence of Terry Xu in the presence of five police officers this morning. No confirmed date of return has been given as investigation will take some time to conclude."

It is uncertain when TOC will resume.

What a sad state for alternative news in Singapore. This comes weeks after States Times Review was denied access and announced its closure. Why are so many alternative sites being targeted? Is it wrong to be different? Will Singapore be a prosperous country if everything is uniform and agreed upon?

A woman was left dumbfounded after being treated rudely be a hawker at Tampines St 11. She was there with her husband for some carrot cake, only to realise that the egg was all runny. What happened next baffled her:

"I carried my plate back to the stall and politely requested that the hawker fry a bit longer to cook the egg. My God! The guy's face turned black and he went into Gordon Ramsay mode. He started yelling in Mandarin and gesticulating. He violently flung the whole plateful into the garbage, while still raging and ranting.

His assistant put some money into my hand. Puzzled, I asked her why she was giving me money. She said 'all is like that. Take your money back. We no time fry again'. As I walked away, he was still yelling and gesticulating. This is one scary hawker. Stay away unless you like soggy, oozy chai tow kway or gangster attitude."

Was the hawker wrong for showing attitude or was the customer too fussy? Are hawkers in Singapore feeling the heat because of the rising costs of living? Who is to blame for what our society is becoming?

Would you risk your life riding an e-scooter? A Singaporean driver posted a funny video showing his commentary of a dangerous e-scooter rider. 

In the video, the ignorant rider was racing down roads in the rain, without a helmet. 

"Wah steady lah, faster than our car ah! No helmet, raining, steady lah this car, hosey lah! Faster than 60km/h, so much faster somemore, sibey ho ah! And then people asking why we need to control this kind of vehicle... because of people like this lah!"

The rider was lucky he didn't get into an accident, but will he be as lucky next time?

An SIA plane carrying 234 passengers and 17 crew heading to Paris returned back to Changi Airport less than an hour after taking off from the same airport, after the pilots reported a drop in cabin pressure. The incident happened early Monday morning. 

The cause of the drop in cabin pressure in the Boeing 777-300ER plane was not immediately known, and it had already over Malaysia when it was forced to turn back. Oxygen masks were even deployed when the plane descended to 6,000 feet, and the plane had to circle the airport for an hour to dump fuel before it can land. There were no injuries reported, and the passengers were transferred to another plane, which eventually departed Singapore at 6:00am to Paris. 

The plane was scheduled to arrive in Paris at 12:17pm (Paris time). The original flight was supposed to reach Paris at 7:15am (Paris time).