A domestic helper in Singapore was burned with an iron by her employer's mother-in-law after she got angry at the helper for placing the iron near a wooden cabinet.

The defendant, Chen Longying (transliteration), pleaded guilty on Jun. 15 to one charge of abuse of the domestic worker.

The victim, a 28-year-old Burmese, had been working for Chen, 67, since Jul. 11, 2024, Shin Min Daily News reported.

At the time of the incident, Chen lived with her husband, son, daughter-in-law, and two grandsons, and Chen's daughter-in-law was the victim's legal employer.

This was the victim's first time working in Singapore.

Hot iron

On Sep. 6, 2024, at 6:30pm, the helper was ironing clothes at home and had placed the unplugged hot iron on the floor after.

Chen noticed that the iron was placed very close to the wooden cabinet and got angry, scolding the helper for being careless.

The helper reportedly argued that the iron wasn't hot, which made Chen even angrier.

She then grabbed the iron from the floor, placed it on the helper's right arm for about two seconds, and asked her if it was hot.

The helper then insisted that it wasn't hot, and Chen pressed it on her arm for another two seconds.

When the helper began to cry and apologise, Chen reportedly refused to accept it and ordered her to continue doing the housework.

Accustomed to corporal punishment: Defence

During the court hearing, Chen's lawyer said that she grew up in China, where she was "accustomed to corporal punishment".

It was also revealed that she was suffering from severe depression at the time of the offence.

The domestic helper's injuries were serious enough to require 90 days of medical leave, Shin Min reported.

She did not seek immediate treatment after sustaining the burn injuries and was only taken to a clinic two days later through arrangements made by the employment agency.

The prosecution urged the court to impose a prison sentence of between 18 and 21 months.

The prosecution also asked the court to order Chen to compensate the helper, including S$10,000 for emotional and mental distress and a further S$1,000 for two months of lost income.

Following the incident, Chen had reportedly already paid the helper S$10,000 as a gesture of apology.

The Korean police are investigating a former candidate for the Busan mayoral elections over suspicions that an attack he supposedly experienced during a campaign event was actually staged.

Jeong Yi-han, 38, ran for mayor of Busan under the Reform Party and lost in the Jun. 3 elections, finishing third with 1.56 per cent of the votes.

On Apr. 27, his team claimed that while greeting voters near a metro station, he was hit by a drink cup a man threw out of a car window, The Chosun Daily reported.

According to his team, Jeong lost his balance trying to avoid the cup and fell, and was taken to a hospital run by his father.

He was also diagnosed with a concussion.

Collusion suspected

After the purported attacker was arrested the day of the incident, he confessed to the police, saying he "committed the crime in a fit of rage".

Jeong visited the man after he was discharged from the hospital two days later and requested leniency for him from the police.

He was then seen returning to the campaign trail wearing a neck brace.

Through investigations, the police found that Jeong and the alleged attacker knew each other, and they spoke over the phone before the Apr. 27 incident.

The police thus began to suspect the two may have colluded to stage the incident.

While the campaign was still ongoing, the police investigated the incident quietly to avoid influencing the vote, The Korea Herald reported.

On Jun. 4, the day after the election, they searched Jeong’s campaign office.

Possible charges

The police are reportedly reviewing possible charges against Jeong, including obstruction of official duties by deception, dissemination of false information, and violations of election law.

The authorities also received a report claiming that the hospital Jeong was admitted to falsely diagnosed him with a concussion, according to The Chosun Daily.

After Jeong lost in the mayoral elections, he announced his retirement from politics and left his party by submitting a withdrawal request online.

The leader of the Reform Party Lee Jun-seok apologised over the police investigations in a Facebook post on Jun. 18, saying he felt "infinite responsibility", and pledged full cooperation with the authorities.

A 36-year-old Singaporean man, who has a fetish for watching teenage boys having diarrhoea and stomach cramps and had admitted to a series of offences against school boys, has been sentenced to six years and one month's jail.

According to CNA, Chew Jun Yang, Sean, faced a total of 28 charges, including cheating by personation, sexual communication for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification, causing hurt by an unwholesome drug and deceiving a person into producing intimate recordings under false pretences.

He pleaded guilty to 11 of them, and the remaining were taken into consideration during sentencing.

At least 30 potential or actual victims

Between 2018 and 2023, Chew contacted at least 30 potential or actual victims, CNA reported.

He typically approached them over WhatsApp, claiming to be a former primary school classmate, and would ask them to guess his identity before assuming the identity of the schoolmate they named.

Chew would then request personal details from each boy, such as their name, age, school, and co-curricular activity, under the guise of conducting a survey for a school project.

Of all his victims, at least 19 of them provided some or all of the requested information to him.

At least 10 of them provided one or more personal photos to Chew at his request.

He also used the information to identify younger boys in Secondary 1 or 2 to target, and would ask for photographs as well.

He then told the victims he was working on an academic project and asked them to describe past experiences of food poisoning or diarrhoea.

He would also request voice or video recordings of the victims narrating or acting out their experiences, which he used for sexual gratification.

Would send substances to victims

According to CNA, in one case, Chew posed as a primary school friend of a secondary school boy and asked for his help with a project on how different bodies react to proteins.

Though the boy was informed that he would experience diarrhoea and vomiting, he agreed to take part, believing Chew to be his old friend.

Between January and July or August 2019, Chew sent the boy six packages containing substances such as cooking oil and baking soda, instructing him to consume them while on video calls.

According to CNA, Chew kept his camera turned off during those calls.

Whenever the boy had diarrhoea, he would send photos, answer questions and even act out his discomfort at Chew's request.

Chew recorded several of these calls, telling the boy the footage would be submitted to a research agency.

Some of these recordings exposed the boy's private parts, which made the boy uncomfortable, but Chew told him they would be censored before submission.

When the boy later asked to stop, Chew persuaded him to take part in one final session before letting him go.

He also asked the boy to write an essay about how he felt.

The deception came to light in January 2021, when the boy ran into the real friend Chew had been impersonating.

When confronted, Chew admitted what he had done and asked the boy not to report him.

Used victims to find new targets

Investigations found that Chew often asked existing victims to introduce him to other boys, CNA reported.

One such victim had agreed to take part in a supposed project on digestion involving the consumption of prune juice, but he felt no urge to defecate despite a lengthy video call.

Another boy, approached after Chew learnt he had once vomited in school after drinking bubble tea, refused to comply, finding Chew's request that he buy prune juice from the supermarket suspicious.

He was later shocked to learn from a teacher in August 2023 that Chew was not a fellow student, and proceeded to block and report Chew.

According to CNA, Chew was also found to have infiltrated an online chat group built around a mobile game by posing as a student, and later began talking to a Secondary 1 boy.

Continued offending while on bail

In April 2020, police seized Chew's phone in connection with earlier offences and found child abuse material involving two boys in school uniform.

Despite this, Chew continued to offend while on bail.

According to charge sheets seen by Mothership, in one case from around March 2023, he convinced a boy to take part in a fabricated "science statistical data challenge," requiring him to consume prune juice and provide photographic and video evidence of his bowel movements.

The boy went on to recruit friends to join the "experiment".

One of them subsequently experienced vomiting and diarrhoea in May 2023 after consuming substances given by Chew, which were later identified to have contained a laxative typically used to treat constipation.

Has a fetishistic disorder

A report from the Institute of Mental Health in July 2025 found that Chew has a fetishistic disorder involving hearing and watching videos of prepubescent males, around the ages of 12 to 15, experiencing diarrhoea and stomach cramps.

According to CNA, he was said to have had this condition since he was 17 to 18.

However, the report noted no link between the disorder and his offending, and found he understood the legal and moral implications of his actions at the time.

Disorder was "not mitigating"

Following Chew's arrest in September 2023, 19 recordings of a teenage boy, including him defecating, were found in his possession.

Prosecutors had sought a jail term of between six years and four months and seven years and one month, noting that Chew had previously served three years' jail in 2015 for similar offences.

They argued his disorder was not a mitigating factor, given his clear insight into his condition.

The Central Expressway (CTE) Exit 8B to Upper Serangoon Road will be temporarily closed from 12am to 5am on Jun. 24, 26 and Jul. 5, 15, 17, 22 and 24, 2026.

The temporary closure on these seven dates is to facilitate bridge-launching works for the new pedestrian-cycling link across the Pan Island Expressway (PIE).

When completed, the link will enhance connectivity between Potong Pasir and Bendemeer as part of the Bishan-to-City Links project.

During the closure, motorists travelling on the CTE to access Upper Serangoon Road via Exit 8B should use Exit 10 to Braddell Road and continue their journey to Upper Serangoon Road.

The slip road from CTE Exit 8B to Changi-bound PIE will remain open and unaffected by the closure.

Barricades and traffic diversion signs will be put up to guide motorists.

Motorists are also advised to plan their routes, drive carefully, and follow the directional signs displayed.

As the project progresses, additional temporary traffic management measures, including a temporary closure of a section of the PIE near the worksite, will be required in July to facilitate bridge construction.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said these measures will be announced at a later date.

19 years ago, Ram Das Brabakaran, 46, was working at a bank’s corporate office when he decided to take a leap of faith.

Today, as Chief of Changi Airport Group’s (CAG) Airport Emergency Service (AES), he oversees about 550 officers whose primary job is to respond to incidents and emergencies across Changi Airport, Seletar Airport and Singapore’s military airbases.

It is a far cry from when he first signed up with AES in 2007.

At that point, he had zero experience in aviation and emergency services and little knowledge of the job for which he was signing up.

Starting from zero

“I was always interested in aviation [and] fascinated by Changi Airport,” Ram said, adding that he had applied for jobs in the aviation industry when he was younger.

“I really didn’t know much about the job that I was applying for in AES. It was a bit of a ‘let’s try my luck and see’.”

Starting from zero was no easy feat.

To prepare for his entry into AES, Ram was put through five months of “extremely tough” training at the Singapore Aviation Academy.

Incident management, command and control, aircraft rescue and firefighting techniques and a duty officer course were some of the things Ram faced.

AES officers are trained very differently because they operate in a highly specialised aviation environment.

They are trained to respond to aircraft fires, aviation fuel related emergencies and passenger rescues under strict international aviation safety standards.

This specialised training prepares them to act within minutes, manage complex aviation hazards, and help stabilise the situation so that the safety of passengers is maximised and airport operations can be safely restored as quickly as possible.

Ram also sat through a gruelling written test, a demanding practical assessment of his command and control abilities and a rigorous interview.

“It was a very, very long process,” he said.

At the end of it all, he became a duty officer overseeing a team of 20 staff who were responsible for addressing aerodrome emergencies.

Such emergencies can involve aircraft crashes, sea rescue, ground fires, hazardous goods incidents, security threats and public health emergencies.

Ram progressed to become an Operations Commander, where he oversaw an “even larger team” and had to make executive command decisions whenever an incident happened during his shift.

High-pressure situations

AES officers are no strangers to high-pressure situations — in fact, they need to work well in them.

The ability to analyse a situation and formulate a response quickly is important as well, the Chief said, calling it the appreciation of the situation.

“While we have a lot of standard operating procedures in place, when something happens on the ground, our guys need to respond quickly… and make sure that the outcome is what we desire,” Ram described.

“No two incidents are the same,” he added, especially if the emergencies concern aircraft.

Tellingly, when I asked Ram about the most memorable incidents he has encountered in his career, he cited three very different incidents.

One of these was the very first incident he ever encountered as an Operations Commander – a gas leak in one of the Changi Airport terminals during his shift.

“This was during the evening peak period. So, I had to make the call because of safety to shut down our food and beverage operations in the terminal,” Ram recalled.

The incident was a reminder that his decision “had some consequences”.

The second was a fire in an air-handling unit in Terminal 2.

The spreading of smoke from that air-handling unit resulted in a terminal-wide evacuation as a precaution, a first for Changi Airport.

During this incident, Ram also had to personally address large groups of passengers who had questions about the status of their baggage and connecting flights, among other issues.

“To go through the situation, not just to handle the fire and smoke, but also to manage passengers, that experience was something that would always stay with me. And I learned quite a lot from that incident as well.”

The third incident occurred when a plane was evacuating passengers onto the runway because smoke was reported on board.

For Ram, his immediate concern was ensuring that the AES rescue vehicles were responding quickly and safely to the aircraft in distress, while looking out for passengers running away from the aircraft on the runway.

Fortunately, “we were very quickly able to manage the incident well and get everyone to safety,” he said.

Policy for its people

Today, Ram’s focus is on leading and developing policy to ensure AES continually operates at a high level of readiness.

This includes overseeing regular, airport-wide aircraft emergency exercises to ensure that everyone — from ground handlers to personnel providing medical support — can respond swiftly and are familiar with their roles.

AES has also evolved to help its people ensure passengers’ peace of mind through the adoption of technology.

“For example, we harness technology by using drone capabilities,” Ram explained, adding, “If I have a night operation, I can use drones to light up the incident scene which might otherwise be very dark.”

AES is also exploring other robotics applications, such as using robots to transport casualties.

On top of these, Ram regularly visits the officers stationed at Changi and Seletar airports and the military airbases that CAG’s AES serve, something he looks forward to doing.

AES cannot do without its people, and so Ram sees it as a priority for him to engage them and ensure that they are ready to perform when needed.

“My job is to go there, meet them, engage in conversations and see how I can [help] them do their jobs better.”

Beyond the uniform

Outside work, Ram is an avid football fan, a doting husband to his wife of 19 years and father to a daughter, 16 and a son, 13.

His family has always been his greatest motivator, even on his bad days.

“They always have [my] back. I always say, ‘My family can keep me going.’”

When asked how else the job has touched his life, Ram remarked that he now pays attention to all the safety messages shared during flights.

He also takes note of where his nearest safety exits are “in the event” he needs them.

Safeguarding passengers

Beyond looking back at his recent appointment as Chief AES, Ram is also focused on the days beyond.

The Chief said his goal is to continue building on the good work of his predecessors and steer AES to always be mission ready.

Part of this is to continue the culture of constantly seeking excellence and tapping on technology such that AES can overcome constraints, such as manpower challenges.

At that, Ram commented that AES officers are “our greatest assets”.

“I hope to be able to play my part in leading the team well, developing our officers to the best of their abilities, and growing their skillsets so they can perform their roles better. When we deliver our mission well, Changi (Airport) succeeds, and Singapore benefits.”

To his people, he says, “Keep the AES SPIRIT going - Safety, People-centric, Integrity, Resilience, Innovation and Teamwork. These are the core values that we want to see in all our AES officers… Most importantly, the sense of teamwork. We don’t fight our mission as individuals.”

Ram added that while his job may not be “glamorous” and has been perceived as being a “blue collar job”, it is his wish that more people will be aware about how “meaningful” it is.

“The purpose of my job is very clear. It’s about saving lives, about safeguarding our passengers. At AES, we have a very, very clear mission,” he said.

“We would warmly welcome more people to come join us.”

For Ram, his 19 years with AES thus far has been a “very purposeful, meaningful career” in a job that is dynamic and can differ greatly each day.

“And you get to do this at the best airport in the world,” the aviation enthusiast concluded.

The writer of this sponsored article now understands the specialised training airport emergency responders undergo.

A Malaysian girl who went missing in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, in 2019 has been found in Langkawi with a husband and a son.

The family reportedly tracked her down via MyKasih system, a Malaysian cashless food aid and education welfare initiative, Sinchew reported.

Missing for 7 years

The family had reportedly used the girl's national identity card (MyKad) number to check her MyKasih aid programme records.

The MyKasih aid programme taps into recipients' MyKad to credit financial aid directly.

As a result, the family discovered her card was used to shop at several stores in Langkawi.

Believing she was on the island, this helped to narrow the search area.

Langkawi deputy police chief Samsulmuddin Sulaiman confirmed that based on information provided by the public, police conducted an inspection at a residence at around 11pm on Jun. 1, The Star reported.

Officers found a 21-year-old woman living in the house with a child.

Further checks by the police confirmed that the woman was still listed as a missing person.

"The woman admitted she left her family home in Johor Bahru before settling in Langkawi. She also claimed to have married a foreigner but her husband was not at home during the inspection."

The woman's family has since been informed that she has been found safe.

According to Sinchew, in the seven years she was gone, the girl's father had passed away, and her mother's health had also deteriorated.

A 64-year-old Burmese Chinese man fatally attacked his 56-year-old wife with a knife and hammer in Zhongli District, Taoyuan, Taiwan, and turned himself in, revealed that he was was allegedly dissatisfied with her.

The incident occurred on the morning of Nov. 17, 2025, ETtoday reported.

The man, surnamed Li, faced charges of domestic violence homicide.

It was previously reported that he had killed his wife because he was in a bad mood after he woke up.

Investigations

Investigations revealed that Li and his wife, surnamed Luo, lived together.

Li’s health was apparently deteriorating, and he was a retiree.

He claimed that he had tried to confide in his wife about his troubles, but she did not take him seriously.

He was then reportedly dissatisfied and angry at her.

Homicide

On the morning of the incident, at about 5am, he purportedly took a hammer from a bedroom toolbox.

When the couple's daughter, who lived with them, left the house, Li decided to catch Luo off-guard in the living room.

He allegedly choked Luo with his hands until she lost consciousness and repeatedly struck the back of her head with a hammer at least three times.

The impact of the strikes reportedly caused skull fractures.

Li then took a kitchen knife and hacked Luo’s right neck and right cheek.

She died from traumatic head injuries.

Li then rode a bicycle to the Neili Police Station and apparently turned himself in.

Questioning

During questioning, the prosecution found that Li could be a flight risk and applied to the court for pretrial detention.

The court also found Li had relatives in Myanmar.

He reportedly admitted to travelling to Thailand multiple times each year for religious missionary work.

After holding his wedding in France, Mario Ho, son of the late Macau billionaire Stanley Ho, returned to Hong Kong to attend his eldest son, Ronaldo's, kindergarten graduation ceremony.

The 31-year-old apparently turned up in a suit and tie, Sing Tao reported.

Graduation

Angela Leong, Stanley Ho’s fourth wife and mother of Ho, attended the event.

In photos of the event, Ho was seen posing with Leong and his two children in family portraits.

Ho also made a speech during the ceremony, sharing his experiences and showing photos of himself as a child attending the same school as his son.

Ho expressed gratitude to his alma mater for leaving his family with happy memories.

In attendance at the graduation ceremony were Hong Kong celebrities such as singer Leo Ku and actress Niki Chow, whose children were reportedly graduating the same year as Ronaldo.

Fees

Causeway Bay Victoria Kindergarten, Ronaldo’s school, is reportedly a prestigious institution in Hong Kong.

Annual tuition and miscellaneous expenses, including meals and other fees, amount to over HK$100,000 (S$16,471.70).

According to Zaobao, the estimated cost of attending kindergarten is at least HK$400,000 (S$65,886.80).

Former Singaporean actress Ivy Lee took to Instagram to share that one of her twin sons has completed the popular but gruelling Ironman race in Austria.

Her son Dash completed the triathlon, which consisted of a 3.8km swim, 180km of cycling, and a 42.2km marathon, in 13 hours 20 minutes 57 seconds.

Lee has twin sons, Nik and Dash.

In her post, Lee shared photos and videos of Dash swimming, cycling, running past the finish line.

She accompanied him throughout as a supporter.

Her Instagram caption read: "The Ironman that makes the Ironmum."

Two Singaporeans competed in this year's Ironman Kaernten-Klagenfurt and only Dash completed the race, according to the published Ironman results.

Background

In 2009, Lee left MediaCorp and moved to Hong Kong with her four children to be with her director husband, Raymond Choy, who worked in China.

In 2018, the family moved from Hong Kong to London, where the children studied.

In 2023, Lee's twin sons returned to Singapore to serve their mandatory national service.

Over 200 content creators from Singapore and Malaysia have come together to allege that a Singapore-based marketing platform has been delaying their payments.

The total outstanding amount between them is about RM543,000 (S$171,000), The Star reported.

This was shared at a press conference held with five of the victims in Kuala Lumpur on Jun. 16.

"[The victims] claim that despite completing the assignments given to them, the payments promised by the platform have not been received," the chief of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) Federal Territories Legal Bureau said at the conference.

Partipost builds a network of influencers to promote products for various brands through social media campaigns.

According to its website, they engage content creators from Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines.

"They owe us for our services"

In April and May, Malaysia content creator Kezia Zhang made several posts on Threads about repeatedly seeking payment from Partipost.

According to a screenshot of her email thread, she was still requesting payment in February for a campaign she completed in 2024.

Then, despite allegedly not receiving payment yet, Partipost sent her an email inviting her to participate in another campaign.

Zhang later shared that she joined a chat group of other content creators who did work for Partipost, and learned that over 200 people had similarly been delayed payment.

According to her, the collective amount owed as of May 28 was more than RM400,000 (S$126,000).

As for Zhang herself, she claimed that by then she had yet to receive RM1,035 (S$325) that she withdrew from the app in February, and another RM710 (S$223) owed to her.

Constant delays

Singapore content creator Deborah Kwek Gilbert also spoke up with similar allegations on Instagram.

In May, she posted that Partipost has "refused to pay" her fully for work done in September 2025, and only started paying "bit by bit" after she chased and threatened to take legal action.

She claimed that the client had already paid Partipost, and believed the company might be "hoping to use new money to pay old backlog of debts".

She also said that the company kept pushing back the deadline for transferring her payment, and she has since "given up on being paid".

Gilbert told Marketing Interactive that she received half of the payment promised after threatening legal action, and another 20 per cent at the end of March.

Reported to the police

In Malaysia, several victims have reported to the Malaysian police about the purported non-payments, according to The Star.

Among them is Ng Yeen Theng, 31, who joined the platform in June 2025.

"I completed about 20 assignments with estimated earnings of RM10,074.08 (S$3,174)," she said. "However, all my withdrawal requests only showed a processed status, and I have yet to receive any payment to date."

Another content creator, 34-year-old Gg Unnie, had been using the platform since 2022.

She previously received payments on time, until they became delayed from the end of 2024.

Now, the sum the platform owes her has grown to RM19,000 (S$6,000).

No satisfactory response

The victims also alleged that they have repeatedly tried to contact the company's management through various means but have not received a satisfactory response.

Liang Zuyi (transliteration), who claimed she is owed RM11,000 (S$3,466), went to the Kuala Lumpur branch to demand an explanation, Shin Min Daily News reported.

According to her, the finance manager repeatedly told her that the company had yet to receive the funds, and the payment would be transferred to her the following month.

On Jun. 8, Zhang updated that the Partipost headquarters in Singapore was empty.

On Instagram accounts that appear to be affiliated with Partipost, several users have commented on their posts demanding payment, with no reply from the company.

Mothership has reached out to Partipost for comment.