The family of 16-year-old Yap Shing Xuen, who was stabbed to death in a school in Selangor, Malaysia, has filed a civil lawsuit in the Kuala Lumpur High Court against government agencies, the male student involved, and his parents.

The mother, Wong Lee Ping, posted on Facebook on Oct. 4, explaining that they are filing the lawsuit not for vengeance, but to seek truth and accountability through legal proceedings.

This comes after the boy accused of stabbing Yap to death was acquitted after being found to be of unsound mind at the time of the incident.

The family said in a media statement that they hope to push for the relevant parties to value campus safety and student mental health issues:

"I will not get my daughter back. She is gone. However, considering all the facts that have emerged since her death, particularly from the criminal trial, I strongly believe that her killing could have been prevented had the relevant parties taken the appropriate steps."

Civil suit

Wong named several parties as defendants in the civil suit.

She said the family believes government agencies failed to take preventive measures on mental health issues in schools before matters escalated.

"The government has introduced many laudable policies and made statements on how mental health issues among students in schools should be addressed. However, policies and statements, without proper implementation, mean nothing," she wrote.

Parents of boy and boy also sued

The family is also suing the boy involved, as well as his parents.

Wong noted that the warning signs were "clearly there" and parents have a responsibility to take due care to ensure that their children do not harm others.

Saying that her daughter was "brutally and senselessly killed", Wong said there should be a full trial so that all stated issues can be properly heard and examined by the court.

Accountability

Wong added that she had sent her daughter to school on Oct. 14, 2025, expecting her to return home as usual.

“On that day, I lost a daughter, and my eldest daughter lost her sister,” she said.

She said the family wanted the relevant parties to be held accountable, adding that no mother or sibling should have to go through what her family experienced.

The mother also called for more concrete action to address mental health issues affecting children, saying that “grand statements and plans are insufficient”.

“We cannot wait until more lives are lost before proper action is taken,” she said.

Singapore government workers will not be paired with colleagues from the same agency when they sign up for the new dating pilot, FirstDate, by the Government Technology Agency (GovTech).

The pilot is open to unmarried public officers aged 21 to 35, GovTech told The Straits Times on Oct. 1.

GovTech had sought public feedback on the Singpass-verified proposed dating service in April 2026.

At the time, it was aimed at singles aged 35 and below.

The agency said it expected those aged 21 to 35 to be more likely to be actively dating and interested in trying the service.

A defined age range would also help the team test it with a more focused group.

Sign-ups close on Oct. 5

GovTech emailed public officers about the initiative on Sep. 29.

Registration closes on Oct. 5, with matching to begin afterwards.

FirstDate emerged from GovTech’s annual hackathon and was not commissioned by another government agency, GovTech told ST.

The agency has yet to decide whether the service will launch or expand beyond the pilot.

One match at a time

The Singpass-verified service pairs participants using questionnaire responses and the Gale-Shapley Stable Marriage algorithm, giving users one match at a time.

GovTech said the team wanted to test whether fewer matches, based on shared values and preferences, would encourage users to give each introduction more consideration.

The algorithm is also used by the Aphrodite Project, a matching initiative started by National University of Singapore (NUS) undergraduates in 2019.

Some questions felt restrictive

A 30-year-old teacher who signed up told ST that the questionnaire helped give a sense of a potential match.

However, he found the dealbreaker options — religion, smoking and dietary preferences — too limited.

He was open to dating someone of another religion, for instance, but did not want to convert.

He also hoped the service would include people outside the public service.

Compatibility still depends on meeting

Psychology experts told ST that matching could facilitate introductions, but could not guarantee chemistry.

Speaking to ST, Singapore Management University (SMU) Assistant Professor Kenneth Tan said offering one match at a time could reduce choice overload, while Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) Associate Professor Jean Liu noted that many aspects of compatibility only emerge when people meet.

Both stressed that users should be assured their data would not be shared with employers or other parties.

FirstDate’s website states that only an assigned match can view a user’s profile, and contact details are shared with mutual consent.

Users can deactivate their accounts and request that their information be removed.

A man in Taiwan discovered that the boy he had raised as his son was not biologically his after relatives and friends commented that they did not look alike.

He subsequently took his former wife to court to challenge his legal status as the boy’s father, Taiwanese news outlet China Times reported.

Became suspicious after divorce

The man, who lives in Pingtung county in southern Taiwan, married his former wife on Nov. 11, 2015.

The boy was born during their marriage.

The couple divorced on Jul. 4, 2024, after nearly nine years of marriage.

Following the divorce, relatives and friends remarked that the boy did not resemble him, prompting him to question whether he was the child’s biological father.

DNA test ruled out paternity

The man eventually took the boy for a DNA paternity test at Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.

The results ruled him out as the boy’s biological father, with their DNA reportedly failing to match at seven genetic markers.

He then filed a lawsuit with the Pingtung District Court to establish legally that the boy was not his child.

During the proceedings, his former wife did not dispute the DNA test results and acknowledged that the boy was not her ex-husband’s biological child.

However, she did not identify the biological father.

The court ruled in the man’s favour and ordered his ex-wife and the boy to bear the legal costs.

The world's richest man, and father of 14, Elon Musk, has split up with partner Shivon Zilis on short notice.

Zilis is a venture capitalist and mother to four of Musk's children, and in the wake of the break up has shared a text message between her and Musk.

From in love, to let go

Zilis posted on X, Musk's social media platform, saying it was "Hard to go from in love to let go in a week with no warning, but that's just how it is sometimes," along with a shrugging emoji.

She said that she felt happy that she got to show Musk "how it feels to be deeply understood, nurtured, and peacefully loved with stability and gentleness."

She referenced Musk's "tumultuous" early life, said he had an "often tortured soul", and fought hard for humanity.

Because of this, she wanted him to "Feel the deepest and most stable form of love this world can provide."

Zilis described Musk as living a "militant existence," and that "we were always his safe space."

Past history

People said that the Musk-Zilis romance had developed after Musk had acted as her sperm donor, with the four children being born between 2021 and 2025.

Zilis has worked with Musk, or at least his companies, since at least 2017.

She has also worked as adviser to Musk for SpaceX and brain technology firm Neuralink, according to the Washington Post.

Zilis said she loved Musk "more than life itself" and that he had taught her "100 lifetimes of knowledge."

Acknowledging that there was "a lot of loss", she celebrated the "four beautiful little loves of my life," referring to the four children she and Musk shared.

"I am so beyond grateful for our children and they make every single day the best day of my life."

Musk has yet to comment on the break up.

Shared screenshot

She also shared a snippet of the life they shared, in the form of a screenshot of a recent text message.

Notably Musk apologised for not realising he could have brought a significant other to the recent state dinner for China President Xi Jinping, just over a week ago on Sep. 24.

Saying that the previous dinner in Beijing had not allowed for it, Musk told Zilis he would have invited her if he had known.

In closing, she said she hoped Musk and her could continue to be "great friends and coparents."

"I'm hurting, but care deeply about E and will always be cheering for his happiness. God speed, Elon, the world is lucky to have you."

The end of October 2026 will also mark the end of a decades-old business for a 75-year-old married couple who will be closing their Pig Trotter Jelly and Shark Meat stall after running it for 45 years.

They will be operating the business until Oct. 31.

According to Lianhe Zaobao, the couple, Yu Zhongrong and Lin Cailuan (both transliterated), have done this for nearly 50 years.

45-year business

It was a family business, which Yu began helping out at, at the age of 10.

The stall previously moved locations in 1987, where Yu and Lin took over the business.

In 1998, they then moved to their current stall in Berseh Food Centre at #02-37, where they are still running the stall today.

Speaking to Zaobao, Lin said they cook the ingredients fresh each day, with a single serving of Teochew-style kueh chap costing S$4.

Any eggs and tofu not sold the same day are thrown away, she said, adding that they are never kept for the next day.

3am every day

It was not an easy few decades for the couple, Zaobao reported.

Work starts at 3am every day when they arrive at the stall to prepare ingredients and cook before opening the stall at 10am.

"It's very tiring," said Lin, noting that if they don't cook it long enough, the taste won't be right, and they wouldn't be able to sell it.

Their children have no intention of taking over the stall, having jobs of their own. The couple themselves do not want them to carry this on as well, pointing to how difficult the craft is.

Lin told Zaobao: "I've been doing this for 45 years... Now very few people make pig's feet jelly because it's too hard work, the cost is high, and you don't make much money.

"The preparation process for braised food is also very time-consuming and laborious. Just washing all the ingredients takes several hours."

They are however concerned for their regular customers, who might be disappointed by their closure.

Hong Kong actress Snowy Bai publicly confirmed that she is in a relationship with her 22-year-old foreign boyfriend in an October 2026 Instagram post that showed them visiting various places together.

Also known by her real name Bai Yunfeng, the 38-year-old former TVB personality said in the post that she is born in 1988 and he is born in 2004.

Relationship

Bai pointed out, however, that their 16-year age gap did not hinder their relationship.

"He's mature, and I'm childish," she wrote.

She also shared that her boyfriend lives in Europe while she lives in Asia, and though he speaks German and she speaks Mandarin, their English is improving,

Being in a cross-cultural relationship was tough, said Bai, adding that the couple had separated for a long time in between.

She noted that despite the challenges they faced, they shared similar interests.

Divorce

Prior to this relationship, she was previously married to Hong Kong architect Kelvin Kong, Dimsum Daily reported.

According to Sing Tao Headline, the five-year marriage eventually ended in divorce in 2021 due to factors such as Kong's family reportedly disapproving of her sharing "sexy photos" online.

Kong reportedly once wrote that sexiness is her favourite thing, and it was something inherent in her.

"Being yourself is the least shameful thing in the world."

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Former Wah!Banana actor Lev Panfilov has given his account of his time facing trial and imprisonment for charges of rape and sexual assault that were eventually overturned on appeal.

In a post on Instagram, Panfilov, 30, compared his life to movies, and how the genre of his life changed from “feel good” to thriller to courtroom drama.

Crediting his family for fighting for him from the outside, he said that he had not just learnt how to survive, but had learnt to live during his time in prison.

Conviction and acquital

In May 2025, Panfilov was convicted of raping, sexually assaulting, and molesting a woman in his flat in January 2021.

He was sentenced to 11 years and six months in jail, as well as 12 strokes of the cane.

At the time, he had already spent over a year in prison, after he had his bail revoked when he attempted to leave Singapore, in what he told CNA was a “foolish decision” to try to visit his terminally ill grandfather in Russia.

But on Sep. 2, Panfilov was cleared of all charges, after the Court of Appeal overturned the convictions, after a panel of three judges said they found inconsistencies in the alleged victim's testimony, giving rise to a reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case.

Movies of different genres

Nearly a month later, on Oct. 2, Panfilov shared his thoughts on the ordeal.

Panfilov said that he had always loved movies, but that he had not anticipated that he would spend “five and a half years guessing what genre mine had become.”

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A post shared by Lev Panfilov (@levpanf)

He compared his life initially to a “feel-good movie”, and that at the age of 24, he was acting, fencing, and making comedy videos, with a scholarship to study acting in New York.

But then, he said that his life became a “thriller” in “the blink of an eye”, as he had been accused of something he said he did not do.

His future was put on hold, but he thought, wrongly as it would turn out, that “it would all be over soon.”

Panfilov spoke about his father, whom he last saw in 2017, who passed away from an aggressive brain tumour in Russia while Panfilov was under investigation.

Panfilov was unable to gain permission to visit him, having tried twice, and was ultimately only allowed to travel after his father had passed away.

He said that he had stood at his father’s grave, recalling the 2001 film A Knight’s Tale, where the main character was encouraged to flee after he was found to be illegally participating in a tournament.

But Will, the movie’s main character, refused, and Panfilov compared himself to that example, deciding that he would return to Singapore to face trial.

Trial and imprisonment

Panfilov said that the trial took 20 days, with three sets of lawyers, legal fees costing nearly S$500,000 and years of legal proceedings, resulting in 11 and a half years in prison.

He shared the grimness of his time in prison, with 23 hours a day spent in a seven-square-metre cell with only one hour a day in the yard and a straw mat to sleep on.

“For a long time”, he said “this became my world.”

He found solace in books, faith, in friends and family, even singing a cappella in his cell, and reciting comedy.

He also paid tribute to his mother, whom he said that while he “fought from the inside, she fought for me on the outside”

“I didn’t just learn to survive. I learned to live.”

Feel-good-movie

He also credited his lawyers and his partner, who had stood by him “through it all”, and that after five and a half years, his appeal was heard and his conviction was overturned.

Reflecting on his experience, he said that maybe his life was a “feel-good movie after all.”

Panfilov said he did not know what would come next, but that for the first time in a long time, “I get to choose.”

Under the Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS), containers purchased overseas are not registered under Singapore's system and are not eligible for deposit refund.

This is the case even if they carry a BCRS mark due to supplier mislabelling, BCRS Ltd. said.

Eligible beverages

Responding to Mothership's queries, it noted that it does not speculate on individual products or purchases without first verifying the specific barcode and product details.

This is because container eligibility is determined through registered product information within the system.

The national initiative applies only to eligible beverages retailed in Singapore, it said.

It added that the 10-cent BCRS deposit is only collected at the cashier or point of sale for these eligible beverage containers.

A netizen recently posted on social media that beverages in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, had labels apparently showing a deposit under the scheme, Lianhe Zaobao reported.

This then sparked online discussion about whether it was possible to get a refund in Singapore for beverages purchased in Johor Bahru.

Return Right Machines

In that regard, the Return Right machines cross-check every container against a live database of registered containers in Singapore, BCRS Ltd. said.

It pointed out that simply printing the BCRS Deposit Mark on an unregistered or overseas product will not allow a deposit refund, protecting the scheme's funds from fraudulent claims.

"If consumers encounter an uncrushed container carrying a Deposit Mark and intact barcode that is rejected by the Return Right machine, they are encouraged to contact hi@returnright.sg with a clear photo of the product, barcode, and purchase location so our team can verify the product details and assist accordingly," it added.

From Oct. 1

An earlier report mentioned that BCRS had kicked in fully from Oct. 1, 2026.

All plastic bottles and cans from 150ml to 3 litres cannot be sold, unless they have the 10-cent deposit mark.

Under the scheme, administered by the National Environment Agency (NEA), customers are charged 10 cents extra for each drink purchased.

They can get the 10 cents back when they deposit the used containers into a Return Right machine, which is a reverse vending machine.

Container needs to have deposit mark and barcode

More than 1,000 machines had become operational since Apr. 1, 2026.

The six-month transition period for producers and retailers to clear old stock ended on Sep. 30.

From Oct. 1, it is an offence to supply any regulated beverage if the container is not affixed with the BCRS deposit mark and a barcode.

Those found guilty can be fined up to S$10,000 and/ or jailed up to three months.

Non-labelled stock can be amended manually or with a labelling machine.

A 33-year-old man was sentenced to two years and three months' jail after he sent nudes of his wife and mother bathing to others and asked them to have sex with them.

Lianhe Zaobao reported that according to Shin Min Daily News, the man faced 10 charges, which included secretly filming, distributing, and possessing nude photos of other people.

He recently pleaded guilty to four charges, with the remaining charges taken into consideration during sentencing.

Victims

He had reportedly been addicted to secretly taking photos, with his victims spanning female relatives such as his wife, mother, aunt, and cousins.

The man cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the victims' identities, Shin Min reported.

In 2024, he secretly filmed his 29-year-old wife showering by placing his phone behind a shampoo bottle in the bathroom.

The man then sent two screenshots from the video to at least two men on WhatsApp, and attached a text message where he claimed he wanted to find someone to have sex with his wife and record it.

He had admitted to having a fetish, Shin Min reported.

Arrested

On Sep. 28, 2025, the man reportedly fell asleep in the evening after getting drunk.

When his wife checked his phone, she was shocked to find photos which included her naked and bathing, as well as his mother showering.

He had sent photos of his mother showering to other people via WhatsApp and told one of them that he wanted to find someone to have sexual relations with his mother, Shin Min reported.

On Sep. 29, 2025, the man's wife brought her family, which included his mother, to confront him in person.

After admitting to taking the photos and videos without their consent as well as deleting them from his phone, he was arrested by the police on Oct. 23, 2025.

Angry, betrayed

Following this, the man's wife said she was angry with her husband's actions and felt that he had betrayed her trust.

The incident also caused her to have insomnia, Shin Min reported.

Often asking herself why her husband had acted that way, the woman reportedly felt embarrassed to discuss the incident with her family.

She also stopped posting online photos of herself or her family, according to Shin Min.

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has launched an investigation following images of a stall employee using their fingers to scoop butter and spread it on bread was shared online.

A video of the incident was uploaded on Sep. 28 to Complaint Singapore.

In the video, a person was seen scooping out butter onto several pieces of bread, then using their finger to spread the butter.

The post alleged that the incident occurred at a stall called "Tuantuan Puanpuan" near Woodlands MRT station.

A scan of Google reviews for the stall turned up at least one complaint regarding a cockroach that was supposedly found in a drink while most of the other complaints involved rude staff.

Calls by Mothership to a number associated with the stall did not go through.

In response to media queries, the SFA said it is investigating the incident and that it will take enforcement action once sufficient evidence is available.