Century Square mall has taken down part of its Christmas decorations after a boy injured his finger while playing with it on Monday (Dec 9).

The incident occurred on the first floor of the mall at Tampines.

The boy was heard screaming while playing at the igloo installation, according to witnesses who spoke to reporters. His fingers were also reportedly covered in blood.

Speaking to reporters, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) confirm that they received a call for assistance at around 3.30pm on Dec 9, and conveyed the boy to KK Women's and Children's Hospital for medical attention.

Installation closed 

A Century Square spokesperson told reporters that help was immediately rendered to the boy after the incident and SCDF was alerted.

They also said that the igloo installation has been dismantled "as a precautionary measure while investigations are ongoing".

The installation will also be closed till further notice, according to an update posted to Century Square's Facebook page.

"The safety and well-being of our visitors remain our utmost priority," said the spokesperson.

SINGAPORE – A man has been arrested following a knife attack in Hougang that left one female employee of a hardware store gravely injured and the store manager with cut wounds.

The attacker, who is said to be a deliveryman, was also injured in the incident which happened at Block 210 Hougang Street 21.

A woman was heard screaming on Dec 10 at about 11am at Quan Long Nippon Paint hardware store, which is located next to Kovan Market and Food Centre, just before the incident.

Witnesses said the assailant, who has been spotted making deliveries to the hardware store, pulled out a knife in the shop and attacked the woman, who tried to run but was unable to get away.

The store manager intervened and wrestled with the man but was injured in the process. According to witnesses, the female victim suffered multiple cuts to her back.

The attacker also suffered injuries in the incident.

Witnesses said paramedics were at the scene minutes later, while heavily armed police officers quickly secured the area.

​All three were taken to hospital, with the attacker escorted by police officers.

Police had cordoned off the hardware store and the adjacent fruit stall and jewellery shop when reporters arrived at around 2pm.

A woman in her 60s working at a nearby department store said she heard loud screaming just before the incident.

“We heard a woman screaming, and some people went to see what was going on,” said the woman, who declined to be named.

“They came back quickly and told everyone to hide in the store because there was a man with a knife.”

She said staff and several customers of the department store then hid inside the shop until the police came.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force said they took two people to Changi General Hospital and another person to Sengkang General Hospital after receiving a call for assistance at 11.05am.

Reporters has contacted the police.

This is a developing story.

SINGAPORE – Three international judges have been appointed to the Supreme Court of Singapore for a two-year term, from Jan 5, 2025, to Jan 4, 2027.

The Prime Minister’s Office said on Dec 10 that Justice Mary Howarth Arden of the United Kingdom and justices Anthony James Besanko and Anthony John Meagher of Australia have been appointed by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

Justice Arden read law at Girton College, Cambridge. She completed a master of laws at Harvard Law School in 1970 as a Kennedy Scholar.

Justice Arden was appointed to the High Court of Justice of England and Wales in 1993, becoming the first female High Court judge to be assigned to the Chancery Division.

She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and from 1996 to 1999 served as the chair of the Law Commission of England and Wales.

Justice Arden also held appointments at the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and the International Judicial Relations for England and Wales between 2000 and 2018.

In October 2018, she was appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the UK, where she served until her retirement in 2022. Justice Arden is also a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, and has sat as an ad hoc UK Judge of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

Her areas of expertise include international and foreign relations law, as well as all areas of civil law, including equity, trusts, company law, insolvency, partnership, property law, statutory interpretation, bankruptcy, choses in action, torts and contract law, constitutional and administrative law, human rights law and water law.

Justice Besanko read law at the University of Adelaide and obtained a first-class honours degree in 1977.

He practised as a barrister in South Australia from 1984 to 2001. He also undertook appellate work and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1994.

Justice Besanko was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia in 2001 before becoming a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia in 2006.

Between 2007 and 2024, he also served as an additional judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory and as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island from 2015 to 2024.

His areas of expertise include commercial law and company law, equity, public and administrative law, intellectual property, bankruptcy and company liquidations, as well as appeals.

​Justice Meagher graduated from the University of New South Wales in 1976 with degrees in commerce and law.

He joined law firm Minter Simpson as a solicitor, and in 1980 completed a master of laws degree at London University.

He was appointed a Senior Counsel for New South Wales in 1995. In August 2011, he was sworn in as a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the Court of Appeal.

On his retirement in August 2024, he was the senior puisne judge on the Court of Appeal. He also sat as a judge on the Court of Criminal Appeal.

His experience comprises general civil and criminal law. His commercial law experience as a counsel and judge includes insurance and reinsurance, shipping and aviation, professional negligence, banking and finance, corporations and competition law, as well as equitable and restitutionary remedies.

With the appointments, the Supreme Court will have 35 judges (including the Chief Justice, three justices of the Court of Appeal, four judges of the Appellate Division, 18 judges of the High Court, four judicial commissioners and five senior judges) and 24 international judges.

SINGAPORE – When Golden Mile Complex reopens to the public after its refurbishment is completed in late 2029, visitors can expect to experience familiar “character-defining elements”, like the building’s large atriums, once again.

Keeping the atriums is one of the reasons behind the decision to build a new 45-storey residential tower to complement the conserved complex, which has been renamed The Golden Mile, said its owners and architects working on the project.

On Dec 10, Far East Organization and Perennial Holdings – the lead developers of a consortium that bought the building in 2022 – unveiled their plans for The Golden Mile, ahead of the launch of its offices and medical suites for sale later in the month.

Golden Mile Complex is the first large-scale strata-titled building to be conserved in Singapore. Its conservation in 2021 came with a package of incentives unique to the complex to support the commercial viability of re-using it following a collective sale.

The project has been closely watched by built environment professionals as a test case for how large, modernist buildings can be conserved, rejuvenated and potentially developed upon in a sensitive and profitable manner.

One notable incentive was bonus gross floor area resulting in a one-third increase over the site’s original development intensity, which the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) previously said could lead to a 30-storey residential tower being built alongside the complex.

The consortium was also allowed to purchase some adjoining state land to create a more regular site boundary for the tower.

In August, the URA gave the developers permission to build a 45-storey tower named Aurea – 15 more storeys than what the authority had initially cited – and approval to add four storeys to the conserved complex.

Aurea and The Golden Mile will be part of a mixed-use development known as Golden Mile Singapore, with Aurea’s 188 residential units set to be launched for sale in the first quarter of 2025.

​Explaining Aurea’s height in an interview with reporters, Far East Organization property services executive director Marc Boey said it is a confluence of several factors.

First, the developers purchased less state land than what was offered by URA. Without disclosing details, Mr Boey said the land bought was “just what was needed to come up with a good development, and a good form and massing for architecture”.

Second, Mr Boey said the developers decided to include an architecture centre in the conserved complex, which Golden Mile Singapore received additional bonus gross floor area for under the URA’s Community/Sports Facilities Scheme.

Third, retaining the complex’s open atriums meant the developers could shift bonus gross floor area to other parts of the project, said Mr Seah Chee Huang, chief executive of DP Architects – the firm working on Golden Mile Singapore.

Based on URA’s guidelines and projections, bonus gross floor area could have been added to the complex’s open atriums such as by “slabbing over”, or adding floors, to the atrium at the retail area in the complex’s lower storeys, Mr Seah said.

The development will also offer office spaces with private lift lobbies, and loft mezzanine office units with double-volume ceilings by combining some of the complex’s former residential units.

The Golden Mile is on a 99-year lease that began on Nov 18, and its tenants are slated to start moving in from the third quarter of 2029.

A public sky garden will be added to 18th storey, which was the conserved complex’s rooftop.

Mr Seah said the garden will separate the original building and the additional four storeys.

DP Architects decided to “create something that is clearly ‘new versus old’, rather than augment Golden Mile Complex in a way that makes it unrecognisable to the public”, he said.

The design of the additional four storeys was inspired by a sketch by the Singapore Planning and Urban Research Group (Spur), he added.

Spur was an urban planning think-tank active in the 1960s and 1970s, and counted pioneer architects William Lim, Tay Kheng Soon and Koh Seow Chuan among its members. The three co-founded Design Partnership, which is today DP Architects, and were part of the design team for Golden Mile Complex, which was completed in 1973.

The Spur sketch, which shows a series of high-density megastructures that resemble Golden Mile Complex in form, decorates a wall in DP Architects’ office in Marina Square – one that Mr Seah said the firm’s architects walk by daily.

“We were studying different ways of blending the old and the new, and when we saw it, it was a eureka moment,” he said.

The building’s iconic 9th-storey deck, which was formerly used by residents as a recreational space, will be turned into a publicly accessible sky terrace.

Mr Seah said retaining residential units within the conserved complex would have made it difficult to open The Golden Mile’s gardens for public access, as these would have to be kept for residents’ use.

On the architecture centre, Far East Organization’s Mr Boey said the developers envision that it will complement the URA’s Singapore City Gallery, which showcases urban planning in the country.

“What is more befitting than putting an architecture centre within a conserved building that is also an architectural icon?” he said, adding that plans for the centre are still in their infancy, and that the developers are working with URA and other advisers “to conceive how the centre should be curated”.

In its later years before Golden Mile Complex closed for refurbishment in May 2023, Golden Mile Complex had housed a sizeable number of Thai businesses, which many came to associate with the building.

Asked if these could make a return, Perennial Holdings chief executive Pua Seck Guan said the Thai businesses are just one chapter of the building’s history, adding that it was the building’s deterioration over time that led to it become a long-distance bus hub, and a Thai enclave.

“When I was younger, it was one of the places you would visit to watch a movie,” said Mr Pua, with Mr Boey adding that the memories associated with the building depended on which time period one grew up in.

“Social memories will keep evolving, and it’s not possible to freeze time and go back to something,” said Mr Boey. “Heritage is not stagnant, it will evolve over time or it may run the risk of becoming irrelevant.”

On concerns that the 45-storey Aurea will dwarf the conserved complex, Mr Boey said that instead of focusing on just the conserved complex and the residential tower, most would instead observe the Beach Road skyline as a whole.

“We are actually not that tall relative to some of the buildings along the road,” he said of Aurea.

​Reflecting on their experience of purchasing and planning for the refurbishment of Singapore’s first large-scale, strata-titled building to be conserved, Mr Boey and Mr Pua said the journey has been challenging but rewarding.

Mr Pua said it took about two years for the developers to get approval for their plan after purchasing Golden Mile Complex in 2022, adding that there were multiple rounds of negotiations with the authorities before the final design parameters were agreed upon.

He noted that it is not easy to meet conservation guidelines, which have added extra scrutiny on plans for Golden Mile Singapore.

Moving forward, it will take developers who are passionate about conservation work to take on the intricacies of similar projects, as well as bear its significant renovation costs, Mr Pua said. These costs could be higher than developing a new building, he added.

“By retaining the building’s sloping facade and structure, and reintroducing office and retail uses, I think it’s a big achievement,” said Mr Pua. “It will bring life to Beach Road, and in the future even help to enliven the Kampong Glam precinct.”

SINGAPORE – The Republic has launched its most ambitious coral restoration project, growing corals from fragments in “high-rise” special tanks on St John’s Island.

Once grown to a healthy size, 100,000 of these corals will be planted on degraded reefs or empty sea spaces to create new reef habitats.

The first step of this decade-long effort began at a new facility in the island’s Marine Park Outreach and Education Centre – home to six specialised tanks that can carry out large-scale coral cultivation.

The six tanks can hold up to 3,600 coral fragments, or nubbins, at any one time. To date, more than $2 million has been raised for this restoration project.

The facility is still in the works and is targeted to fully open in the second quarter of 2025. For now, there are about 600 nubbins growing in two of the tanks.

While the initial stages of this project will be helmed by researchers, marine enthusiasts will be later invited to the lab to grow corals and monitor them, said National Development Minister Desmond Lee on Dec 10, as he announced the launch of the initiative on St John’s Island.

The National Parks Board (NParks), St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory and the Friends of Marine Park community will train members of the public to cultivate corals, monitor their growth and do weeding work to remove algae from the corals, among other things. 

More details on public participation will be shared when ready.

When the coral restoration project was announced in 2023, NParks said it will take at least 10 years to complete.

At the launch on St John’s Island, Mr Lee was joined by world-renowned British primate expert Jane Goodall, who was on a working visit to Singapore.

Over the decades, about 60 per cent of Singapore’s coral reefs have been lost to coastal development and land reclamation. Most of its remaining intact coral reefs are found in the Southern Islands. 

The Republic’s waters are home to around 250 species of hard corals, which constitute about a third of the world’s existing coral species.

The reefs here serve as habitat for more than 100 species of reef fish, about 200 species of sea sponges, and rare and endangered seahorses and clams, among other marine life. 

Beyond boosting marine biodiversity, restoring corals will protect the coastlines from waves and storms, which are expected to get stronger amid sea-level rise and climate change.

The corals to be grown in tanks and planted in the wild include several species under NParks’ species recovery programme, which protects threatened flora and fauna and helps them survive environmental change.

These include the branching Staghorn coral and the flat table Acropora coral.

Mr Lee said cultivating these corals in specialised tanks is an ambitious undertaking, with conditions such as lighting, temperature, as well as water quality and flow to be specific to each species.

To allow hundreds of coral fragments to grow in each tank, scientists at the St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory are cultivating them on vertical structures, among other methods. Coral nubbins are attached to plugs that are then affixed to a vertical frame.

The scientists and NParks staff have named these set-ups “coral HDBs”, said the minister.

The tanks will be paired with a smart system that will send data on water quality to researchers. This allows the scientists to monitor tank conditions remotely and be alerted if they need to intervene.

This system is a technology of Delta Electronics, a firm that specialises in industrial and building automation solutions. Delta is also one of several donors of the more than $2 million raised so far. The other donors include GSK-EDB Trust Fund and Deutsche Bank.

​The launch of the restoration effort comes as existing corals are slowly recovering from the largest recorded global bleaching event caused by a marine heatwave.

Announced in mid-April by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the global bleaching event was the fourth of its kind.

In July, areas such as St John’s, Lazarus and Kusu Islands were found to have 30 to 55 per cent of coral colonies bleached and white.

With water temperatures dropping in recent months, bleached corals have started to regain colour, said Mr Lee.

NParks and NUS have been monitoring Singapore’s reefs for bleaching since July.

The findings will help identify which species are under threat and which ones are climate-resilient, and will also narrow down suitable planting sites for future coral restoration efforts, said Mr Lee.

A 101-year-old woman who single-handedly raised 10 children died last Tuesday (Dec 3).

Centenarian Lin Jiao (transliteration) has six sons and four daughters with her deceased husband, who succumbed to cancer some 56 years ago.

Lin's sixth child Cai Xiuduan (transliteration), 67, told Shin Min Daily News that she grew up poor, and even had to borrow food from neighbours in her father's last years of life.

Following his death, Lin - who came to Singapore alone from China when she was 16 - did not want to rely on her husband's family.

The housewife planted vegetables and raised chickens to make a living, taking on side jobs such as selling durians and rambutans or inspecting apparel for more income.

Cai added that her older siblings also joined the workforce soon after her father died, while her younger siblings stopped going to school due to financial constraints.

The family's financial situation improved in the 1980s after all 10 children started working, and they were able to move into a HDB flat.

Starting then, Lin would also travel back to her hometown of Fujian once a year to visit relatives.

​Remembering the centenarian as perseverant and kind-hearted, Cai said: "Over the past few decades, she raised us by herself and endured sufferings, never getting remarried. She only wanted us to live well, and we greatly admired her."

Lin died in a Ren Ci nursing home with her children present, according to Cai.

SINGAPORE – A bus driver has been suspended after an accident involving two public buses in which nine people were taken to hospital.

The accident took place on Dec 8, when the 57-year-old driver of bus service 980 hit another bus – service 166, operated by SBS transit – at a bus stop along Upper Thomson Road.

On Dec 9, Tower Transit – which operates service 980 – said the male driver has been suspended pending an investigation.

Tower Transit senior communications executive Vera Lim added that the bus also crashed into a bollard at the bus stop.

Two passengers on the 980 bus were among those taken to hospital. There were 20 on board at the time.

Ms Lim said: “TTS would like to sincerely apologise to the passengers on both buses who were injured and inconvenienced by the accident.

“We are reaching out to our injured passengers and their families to provide assistance. We are also working with SBS Transit to assist their injured passengers.”

The remaining 18 passengers on board the Tower Transit bus were able to continue their journey on another bus, she added.

SINGAPORE – An Australian man who allegedly uttered threatening words at Changi Airport, including stating that he would crash a plane, was handed two harassment charges on Dec 9.

According to court documents, Marli Curtis Philip Moncrieff, 36, was on board a Perth-bound Jetstar Australia plane at around 5.40am on Nov 20 when a cabin crew member allegedly heard him saying: “I wish the aircraft to crash and kill everyone... I want the aircraft to crash.”

The police said in a statement on Dec 8 that he was later escorted to a holding room, where he allegedly uttered similar words again.

​He is accused of saying: “If you put me on another plane, I am (going to) do the same thing. I will tell the pilot I will crash the plane.”

The police did not disclose what happened next, but the court heard on Dec 9 that Moncrieff is expected to plead guilty on Dec 18.

For each count of harassment, an offender can be fined up to $5,000.

SINGAPORE – About 50 people were evacuated from a Housing Board block in Tampines after a fire broke out on the morning of Dec 9.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) was alerted to the fire at a unit on the 13th floor of Block 889A Tampines Street 81 at about 6.40am.

When officers arrived, black smoke was emitting from the unit, the SCDF said in a Facebook post on Dec 9.

​Two of the flat’s residents had left the unit before SCDF arrived and were subsequently checked by a paramedic for smoke inhalation. They declined to be taken to hospital.

The fire involved the contents of a bedroom, SCDF said, adding that the cause is under investigation.

SINGAPORE – The Ministry of Health (MOH) will not subsidise the cost of the shingles vaccine because of its high price.

A check by The Straits Times found that the price of the two doses of the Shingrix vaccine, which are administered two to six months apart, ranges from $720 to $950, inclusive of goods and services tax and any consultation fees.

“At the price proposed by the manufacturer, the vaccine is not considered cost-effective for the prevention of shingles at the population level,” MOH said on Nov 12 in response to a parliamentary question.

Mr Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC) had asked in Parliament in November whether MOH planned to include the vaccine in the National Adult Immunisation Schedule, “such that it will be eligible for subsidies, especially for vulnerable seniors”.

Produced by British pharmaceutical company GSK, Shingrix was approved for use here in 2021. It provides over 90 per cent protection against shingles, although its effectiveness may be lower for older people and those with weakened immune systems.

Protection lasts at least seven years, and possibly longer, as the vaccine is relatively new, having been first approved for use in the US in October 2017.

Only people who had chicken pox are at risk of getting shingles, as it is caused by the same varicella-zoster virus, which remains dormant but may flare up later in life.

​Shingles causes a painful and itchy rash, usually on one side of the body or face. For the majority of patients, the blisters scab in a week, and clear up totally within four weeks.

However, up to one in five people might suffer from complications, the most common being long-term nerve pain, known as postherpetic neuralgia.

Other complications include pneumonia, encephalitis or inflammation of the brain, and hearing loss. The risk of complications is higher in older people.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says that one in three adults will get shingles in their lifetime.

In Singapore, an estimated 30,000 people suffer from the illness each year. People can get shingles more than once.

The treatment focuses on pain relief. Antivirals, if taken within the first 72 hours, are most effective.

They may help reduce some symptoms if taken within the first five days, but they do not entirely prevent nerve pain. The best protection against shingles is to get vaccinated.

Although MOH will not subsidise the cost of the shingles vaccine, there are other vaccines for seniors that it does subsidise. These include the annual influenza vaccine, and two doses of the pneumococcal vaccine to protect against conditions like pneumonia, meningitis and infection of the blood.