SINGAPORE: A 12-year-old student was taken to the hospital on Tuesday (Apr 16) after a car hit her at a pedestrian crossing outside Bukit View Secondary School. 

The police were alerted to the accident involving a car and a pedestrian along Bukit Batok Street 21 towards Bukit Batok Central at about 7.05am on Tuesday, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in response to CNA's queries.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) also told CNA it was alerted to a traffic accident along the same street at about 7.10am.

The girl was taken conscious to the National University Hospital.

She has since been discharged from hospital, said Bukit View Secondary School's principal Jaswant Singh on Tuesday afternoon.

"We are in touch with the student and her family to provide the necessary support," he added.

A 50-year-old male car driver is assisting with police investigations, the police said, adding that investigations are ongoing.

In a video uploaded by Facebook page SG Road Vigilante, the girl is seen running across the pedestrian crossing as a traffic warden waves for vehicles to stop.

A white Honda Vezel did not stop and hit the girl. In the footage, the girl is seen flying forward due to the impact.

SINGAPORE — Pritam Singh, the Leader of the Opposition and head of the Workers' Party (WP), was charged on Tuesday (19 March) with two offences over allegedly lying to a parliamentary committee. This development comes two years after the police initiated investigations into his conduct during proceedings before the Committee of Privileges.

According to The Straits Times, the charges stem from Singh's testimony before the committee, which was convened in November 2021 to address a controversy involving Raeesah Khan, a former MP from his party. That committee had recommended Raeesah be fined $35,000 for lying to Parliament and abusing her parliamentary privilege.

The vouchers will be valid from Apr 15 this year until the end of December 2027.

SINGAPORE: In a crackdown on litterbugs, Singapore may publicise images of offenders in community spaces so members of the public can help identify them.

Identified offenders will be dealt with under the law, including being fined or charged in court, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said.

"Care will be exercised" in cases committed by young children, the elderly or vulnerable groups, the agency added.

SINGAPORE: From Mar 1, it will no longer be mandatory for people to wear masks in some healthcare settings that are considered lower-risk, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Thursday (Feb 29) as it adjusts Singapore's COVID-19 response protocols, including vaccine recommendations.

“Mask-wearing will no longer be compulsory for patients, visitors and staff in outpatient settings, including polyclinics, general practitioner clinics, specialist outpatient clinics, dialysis centres, Traditional Chinese Medicine clinics and dental clinics,” said MOH.

“However, mask-wearing is still strongly encouraged for medically vulnerable persons, seniors and persons with acute respiratory infection (ARI) in these settings.”

Mask-wearing will also be required for higher-risk healthcare settings, such as inpatient wards, emergency departments and residential care facilities.

The government does not condone any exploitative employment contracts, said the Manpower Minister.

SINGAPORE: Guidelines on the use of a job stipulation that restricts an employee from working for a competitor are being finalised and are expected to be made known in the second half of 2024, the Manpower Minister Tan See Leng announced on Tuesday (Feb 6).

Also known as restraint of trade clauses, the non-compete rule has caused unease recently with high-profile examples from two big-name tech firms.

Former Lazada employees who spoke to CNA after the retrenchment exercise in early January questioned their 12-month non-compete clause that covered an extensive list of tech, retail and logistics companies.

Last week, the courts dismissed Shopee's requests for injunctions against a former employee who resigned and moved to ByteDance. When he first joined Shopee, he had signed a Restrictive Covenants Agreement with a non-solicitation and non-competition clause, as well as an Employee Confidentiality Agreement.

“We understand that overly restrictive restraint of trade clauses can disadvantage retrenched employees and create difficulties in finding employment,” said Dr Tan, responding to several parliamentary questions about Lazada’s recent retrenchment exercise

SINGAPORE — You might want to think twice about that swim the next time you're at one of these two Singapore beaches. The National Environment Agency (NEA) has advised the public against carrying out primary contact water activities in the waters of Pasir Ris Beach and Sembawang Park Beach due to elevated bacteria levels.

Primary contact water activities include swimming, wakeboarding, windsurfing and water immersion training, where a person’s whole body or face and trunk are frequently immersed, making it likely for some water to be swallowed, the NEA said. Meanwhile, other non-primary contact water activities like sailing, kayaking and canoeing can continue.

In a media release on Monday (5 February), the agency said that both beaches saw a grading drop from "good” to “fair” from its annual beach grading exercise. The "fair" grading is due to an increase in Enterococcus (EC) bacteria levels, which increases the risk of gastrointestinal infection when beach water is ingested, the NEA said.

EC is a bacteria commonly found in the gastrointestinal tracts of warm-blooded animals like humans, the NEA said. Increased EC levels in recreational water increases the risk of gastrointestinal illnesses in swimmers.

Signages advising the public against swimming will be put up along both beaches, and will be in place until further notice., the NEA added.

SINGAPORE: Two top universities in Singapore are paying the price of success as foreign tourists flock to see their campuses, causing disruptions to students. One of them, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), has just imposed a fee to manage the influx of curious sightseers.

Why not just fence it? It’s universities after all, not tourist places. Put guards at the gates to control entry.

The price growth of private residential properties has slowed due to higher interest rates and multiple rounds of cooling measures, say analysts.

SINGAPORE: Private residential property rentals fell for the first time in over three years, likely due to an increase in the supply of housing, said analysts.

According to statistics from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday (Jan 26), private home rentals fell by 2.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2023, compared with the 0.8 per cent increase in the preceding quarter.

For the whole of 2023, rentals increased by 8.7 per cent, much slower than the 29.7 rise in 2022.

URA said that rental momentum has eased across all market segments.

The rental index of private residential properties in Singapore. (Graph: URA) About 21,300 private residential units were completed in 2023, more than twice the number of completions in 2022. This was also the highest annual supply completion since 2016.

OrangeTee Group's chief researcher and strategist Christine Sun said: "The rent drop may be due to increased competition as many private homes were completed last year, and total rental stock grew consequently.

"Tenants were also willing to move to cheaper alternatives in the public housing segment."

She predicted that the downward pressure on rental prices may continue.

Real estate agency PropNex said the moderation in rentals can be partly attributed to increasing rental price resistance from tenants and the surge in private home completions.

"Past trends suggest that a strong completion pipeline can help to curb rental growth," it added.

PRICES

Prices of private residential properties rose by 2.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2023, compared with the 0.8 per cent increase in the previous quarter.

Non-landed property prices increased by 2.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, slightly higher than the 2.2 per cent rise in the preceding quarter.

Landed property prices rebounded from a 3.6 per cent decrease in the third quarter to an increase of 4.6 per cent in the fourth quarter.

For the whole of 2023, prices of private residential properties increased by 6.8 per cent, lower than the 8.6 per cent rise in 2022.

The property price index of private residential properties in Singapore. (Graph: URA) Resale transactions fell to 11,329 for the whole of 2023, compared with the 14,026 resale transactions in 2022.

Mr Lee Sze Teck, senior director of data analytics at Huttons, said rising resale prices for private homes and high interest rates have continued to constrain transaction volume.

"Some price sensitive buyers were priced out of the market. Since interest rates were raised in 2022, resale transaction volume has been declining," he added.

Ms Sun added that the multiple rounds of property cooling measures, price resistance and slower overall demand affected private homes' price growth last year.

The government has introduced three rounds of property cooling measures since 2021 - the latest being in April last year.

Related:

Singapore private home prices rose at slower pace of 6.7% in 2023

Property resale market stabilising, may have peaked: PropertyGuru report OUTLOOK

Ms Sun said she expects the private property market momentum to continue in 2024.

"Although property curbs are in place and buyers are more cautious due to cost concerns, the market is expected to remain stable," she added.

CEO of PropNex Realty Ismail Gafoor said buyers are taking a careful approach, with market uncertainties still present.

"We may see buyers returning as they gain more clarity of the market in the months ahead," he added.

"Despite the cooling sales volumes last year, overall private home prices have held up, which suggests that the market is still resilient."

URA urged buyers to "exercise prudence" when taking on new financial commitments, including long-term mortgage debt servicing obligations.

Global economic activity is expected to ease further into 2024, with domestic mortgage rates at elevated levels, said the authority.

Source: CNA/rl(mi)

SINGAPORE — NETS FlashPay cards, as well as EZ-Link adult cards not yet upgraded to SimplyGo EZ-Link, will no longer be accepted as public transport fare payment from 1 June.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said in a media release on Tuesday (9 January) that these two legacy stored-value cards can still be used for other motoring-related payments such as Electronic Road Pricing and parking charges.

About 100 co-workers have been laid off so far, Lazada employees who spoke to CNA estimated.

SINGAPORE: As Lazada workers filed back to the office in the new year, they could sense something was amiss as all the meeting rooms were booked up, with back-to-back slots.

Some got meeting invitations the night before, or just a few hours before the dreaded session at which they were informed that they had lost their job. Some people had to cancel their leave to come back for the sudden meeting.

A number of people cried, especially on Wednesday (Jan 3), as it was completely unexpected, employees told CNA.

This was how three Lazada employees, who spoke to CNA on condition of anonymity, described the retrenchment process, which began from Wednesday morning at the e-commerce giant's regional headquarters in Singapore.

They described it as "unfair", "opaque" and "baffling", adding that it has caused much anxiety and speculation among their colleagues due to the lack of transparency.

With property taxes for most homes set to rise once more next year, the government will provide a one-off rebate of up to 100 per cent to cushion the impact on affected property owners amid cost-of-living concerns.