A Singaporean man devised an elaborate scheme to cheat victims of their money by having them sit in rigged mahjong games.

To do this, Marcus Ang Yi Sheng allegedly posed as a woman on dating apps to lure them into playing.

Unbeknownst to the victim, all the other players at the table would be co-conspirators who colluded to ensure that the victim lost.

The scheme was so effective that Ang allegedly bragged that they had a "99 per cent win rate", estimating that the crew made S$100,000 in ill-gotten gains.

CNA reported that one co-conspirator, Olivia Chin Hui Zhen, 31, was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment and fined S$3,000 on Oct. 1.

She pleaded guilty to four charges of conspiracy to cheat and one charge of unlawful gambling, with another 32 charges taken into consideration.

The rest of the group have also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing, except for one whose case is still pending.

The scheme

According to court documents seen by Mothership, the persons involved besides Ang and Chin are the following: Jason Chin Yi Sheng, Kristy Tan Siew Boon, Leong Ying Liat, Penelope Kek Yong Ru, Chloe Low Zhiyi, Belinda Chee Yan Lin and Li Yongyi Joaquin.

The court heard that from April 2024, Ang created fake profiles on dating apps, and he would then chat with victims and ask them to play mahjong.

Once they accepted, one of Ang's female accomplices would pose as the woman in the profile and either host the game or serve as their "date" during the game.

Ang would then allegedly direct each of the conspirators present to take on pseudonyms and fake relations with one another, acting as siblings or strangers for instance.

This was so that the victim's suspicion would not be aroused by the fact that they all knew one another.

Here's how they allegedly did it.

At the mahjong table, each player took on a specific role depending on their seat.

One player would "defend" against the victim; another would form a winning hand as quickly as possible or "throw" tiles to the third player; and the third would aim to form the biggest hand possible to maximise winnings from the victim.

When Chin would serve as the host or "date", she was instructed that should the victim refuse to pay, she should pretend to offer to cover half the sum so that the victim might be more willing to pay some money.

Ang also made a WhatsApp group, “Sales appointment updates”, to coordinate games and dole out commissions to each player.

He even purportedly organised training sessions for each player to familiarise themselves with their role.

Scammed

In total, no fewer than 28 games were arranged between April and June 2024, but only 19 took place.

Victims were made to pay sums between S$1,120 to S$26,000 after they lost.

One victim purportedly refused to pay S$26,000 and left. The conspirators followed him to his house but were unsuccessful in obtaining the money.

Another victim allegedly refused to pay a similar sum, prompting the group to quarrel with him at the void deck and tell him that they would find him at his workplace and report him to the police for "raping" his fictitious "date".

Eventually, one victim made a police report.

Chin was arrested in June 2024.

Sentencing

According to CNA, Chin's lawyers sought leniency and a reduced sentence, saying that she had made full restitution.

She was the first in the group to plead guilty.

Her lawyers also argued that she had the least culpability as she was not only less experienced in the game than the others, but also did not know that the games were rigged at first, only getting involved in the scheme later.

The prosecution countered that she was involved in the conspiracy, nevertheless, and played several games, acting on Ang's instructions.

The judge said that her abilities in mahjong were irrelevant insofar as she had played a role in the scheme, but took into account the restitution that she made.

He deferred Chin's sentence by four weeks for her to settle her affairs.

For conspiracy to cheat, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

For unlawful gambling, an offender can receive up to six months' imprisonment, fined up to S$10,000, or both.

A female passenger on Batik Airlines insisted on carrying a cardboard box the size of a cabin lugagge on her lap and refused to give it to the airline’s crew for safekeeping. When she failed to comply, she was escorted off the plane by police officers.

Another passenger on the plane, known as Ke, told Shin Min Daily News about the incident. The plane, headed from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, was scheduled to depart at 12.30pm.

The takeoff was delayed, and Ke noticed a woman holding a box sitting near the aisle.

The box was apparently as big as her carry-on luggage. It was so big that it could not even fit into the overhead luggage rack.

For the next 45 minutes, flight attendants tried to have her hand over the box to them for safekeeping, ensuring her that it would be returned when the plane landed. One of the flight attendants apparently said, “I promise you.”, but she refused to cooperate.

A male flight attendant took the box away from her and left, but she refused to disembark after him. 5 police officers eventually showed up to persuade the woman to cooperate as well, but she did not budge. They ended up removing her from the plane.

Christa Gail Pike was scheduled to be executed in Tennessee on Sep. 30, but she remained alive after two rounds of lethal injection.

Pike could be heard ‘snoring’ after her attempted execution before the microphone was shut off, and was taken by an ambulance from the prison.

According to BBC, citing her attorney, Pike was being provided "life-saving" measures in hospital now.

Failed lethal injections

Media witnesses were allowed to observe from a separate room, and they saw Pike strapped to a gurney when officials raised the curtain to the execution chamber at about 7.30pm as reported by CNN.

She was reportedly speaking in full sentences as she was about to be administered with deadly drugs, and was heard saying, “My arm feels like it’s about to bust. One spot is really throbbing,”

Her first dose of the lethal drug, pentobarbital, was administered. About an hour she was given the first injection, a second dose was administered at around 8.30pm.

She could be heard snoring until microphones were cut off at about 9pm, and witnesses were asked to leave at that time.

According to the New York Post, her attorneys said that she had “not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring.”

She was transferred to an off-site medical facility.

Protocol

According to the New York Post, in Tennessee, prison officials prepare one set of the lethal injection, but have enough of the drug on hand to prepare a second set if needed.

There is a five-minute waiting period after the first set is given, during which the blinds to the execution chamber are closed.

If the inmate does not die after the first set, the second set will be administered. However, the protocol does not give instructions on what to do if the second injection fails.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said that it followed all protocols during the failed execution.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee called for a full review of what may have gone wrong and has called off the one remaining execution scheduled in the state before 2026 ends.

Following the failed execution, Pike’s lawyers filed an emergency motion to the Supreme Court to stay her execution.

Their argument says that Pike was in “unnecessary agony” and she was denied her right to be executed without “cruel and unusual punishment”.

Her attorneys said, “We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms. Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy.” as reported by the New York Post.

Christa Pike’s case

In 1995, Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, and her friend Shadolla Peterson lured the victim, Colleen Slemmer to an isolated area of the University of Tennessee’s Knoxville Campus.

Peterson acted as the lookout as Pike and Shipp tortured Slemmer for at least 30 minutes. They carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest with a box cutter, hit her with a meat cleaver, and slashed at her throat while she begged for her life.

They finally killed her by using a block of asphalt to smash her head, with Pike keeping a piece of her skull.

Pike’s execution would have made her the first woman to be put to death in Tennessee in over 200 years.

Two women were arrested for suspected vice-related activities following an enforcement operation at a massage establishment along Sims Avenue.

The operation was conducted on Sep. 18 by officers from the Geylang Neighbourhood Police Centre (NPC) and Bedok Division Compliance Management Unit, according to a Facebook post by Geylang NPC.

4 women seen in police photos

A photo posted on Facebook showed four women seated on a sofa with their faces blurred out.

Two women were subsequently arrested for suspected vice-related activities.

The police reminds members of the public not to take part in such activities and to report suspected cases to the police.

When ICA officers came to a Hougang flat in May, a 30-year-old man allegedly told the Indonesian woman living there to hide in a wardrobe.

He is also said to have instructed a 20-year-old man to delete messages from her phone.

Sharizal Saidon now faces three charges, according to Lianhe Zaobao, which cited an Immigration & Checkpoints Authority statement.

Three years

Alfira Mongan's special pass expired on May 19, 2023.

Sharizal is alleged to have helped her remain in Singapore unlawfully from the next day until May 26, 2026, without reasonable excuse.

That is just over three years.

He is also alleged to have allowed her to stay at his flat at Hougang during that period, despite knowing that she had overstayed.

The raid

The obstruction charge relates to May 26, 2026, when ICA officers came to the Hougang unit.

Sharizal is alleged to have obstructed them in carrying out their duties, telling Alfira to hide in a closet to avoid the search, and instructing a 20-year-old man to delete messages from her phone.

Barred

Alfira was convicted earlier and sentenced to 14 weeks' jail and a S$2,000 fine.

She has since completed her sentence, been repatriated, and barred from returning to Singapore.

What he faces

Knowingly harbouring an immigration offender carries between six months and two years’ jail, as well as a fine of up to S$6,000.

Negligently harbouring an immigration offender carries a fine of up to S$6,000, up to 12 months’ jail, or both.

Obstructing an immigration officer in the execution of their duty carries a fine of up to S$4,000, up to 12 months’ jail, or both.

Sharizal has been charged and has indicated he intends to plead guilty. His case has been adjourned to Nov. 2.

An employee of Bee Cheng Hiang's marketing department mistakenly caused a personal data breach involving 95,364 of the company's members when they used an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to send mass marketing emails.

Only the members' email addresses were affected, according to the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC).

As the marketing email was sent in batches of 1,000, each affected member's email address was disclosed to up to 999 other recipients within the same batch, displayed in the "To" field of the emails.

Bee Cheng Hiang Marketing notified the PDPC of the incident, which happened on Apr. 25, two days later.

It is the first AI-related data breach in Singapore that the PDPC has been notified of.

The commission investigated the incident and conducted a voluntary undertaking from Bee Cheng Hiang on Sep. 2 to improve its compliance with the PDPC.

They found that the affected data was not managed, processed, or generated by any AI-powered operation or process.

There was also no evidence of further misuse of the affected personal data.

How it happened

The incident was caused by a human error when the employee developed an email distribution Python script with an AI tool.

There was a configuration error in the generated script.

It was missing a bracket that caused all recipient email addresses within each batch to be grouped together as a single object in the “To” field, rather than as individual, isolated recipient entries.

PDPC underscored that the error was due not to a malfunction in the AI tool, but to the prompt given, as it did not include specific instructions to make sure other recipients' email addresses was not visible to each recipient.

The employee did not realise the error before deploying the script, PDPC said.

They tested it by checking activity logs without reviewing the contents of the actual test email.

No review process

The incident likely happened because Bee Cheng Hiang Marketing did not conduct sufficiently robust testing to check the email distribution script before it was deployed, according to the PDPC.

The company also did not have a review process for supervisory checks of the employee’s work, nor a governance framework or policies in place to guide employees on the use of generative AI tools for work.

It was the first time the company had attempted to incorporate AI tools in its business operations.

The PDPC advised organisations to take precautions before adopting AI tools to enhance their operational efficiency.

They should carry out appropriate data protection impact assessments, develop policies and processes for the AI use, and implement testing and review mechanisms.

This way, they can better ensure that their employees use AI tools responsibly and safeguard personal data.

Remedial action

Bee Cheng Hiang Marketing "took prompt remedial actions" when they discovered the error, PDPC said.

They included immediately halting the bulk marketing email distribution process to prevent further email activity, and rectifying the erroneous script.

The company also notified all affected members, and implemented double-verification checks by at least two staff for all bulk email communications before sending out.

As part of the voluntary undertaking, the company has taken and will take a few further steps to ensure data security, and the PDPC will verify their compliance.

Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was seen shedding tears next to his wife's grave on Oct. 1, three days after her death .

He was paying his last respects alongside family members during funeral rites for Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, who passed away at the age of 100 on Sep. 28.

Mahathir was in a motorised wheelchair.

During the 15 minutes he spent at Siti's grave, he was seen crying as he prayed and scattered rose petals.

According to the New Straits Times, Mahathir had stopped by on the way home from the National Heart Institute after undergoing regular treatment.

The 101-year-old has been suffering from a lack of sleep since his wife's death, his press secretary said.

A 23-year-old South Korean man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering a female high school student after attempting to kidnap her with the intention of sexually assaulting her.

According to local news outlet The Korea Times, the man, Jang Yoon Gi, was sentenced on Sep. 30, 2026.

He was earlier indicted on May 5, 2026 on charges including murder in the course of rape over the death of 16-year-old Lee Chae Won.

The charges

The incident took place at around 12:10am on a deserted walkway in Wolgye-dong in Gwangju's Gwangsan District, Korea JoongAng Daily reported.

Jang was also charged with attacking a second-year high school male student, who ran over upon hearing Lee scream, with a weapon.

In addition to the murder charge, Jang was also charged with other sex-related offences.

He allegedly stalked and sexually assaulted a woman who worked with him at a part-time job two days before the murder.

He was also accused of secretly filming a teenage girl's body while serving as a social service agent.

Prosecution sought the death penalty

The prosecution sought the death penalty at Jang's final hearing on Aug. 31, 2026, reported Korea JoongAng Daily.

Jang's charge of murder in the course of rape carries two possible sentences under South Korean law: death or life imprisonment.

He admitted to all the charges in court and submitted three letters expressing remorse.

The court also ordered him to wear an electronic ankle monitor and barred him from working at institutions for children, adolescents and people with disabilities for 10 years, should he be released.

Separately, the victim's family reportedly staged a one-person protest around the time of the sentencing, calling for the maximum penalty allowed under law, and submitted a petition seeking severe punishment.

The petition had garnered about 100,000 signatures.

A family member told reporters that the ruling has "killed our family once more".

The court ultimately found Jang guilty on all charges and said the prosecution's argument that he should be isolated from society permanently was reasonable.

South Korea has not carried out an execution since December 1997.

The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and social media giant TikTok have partnered up to create a new programme aimed at developing expertise in microdramas.

According to a press release by IMDA, this new initiative will equip media professionals with the skillset to conceptualise and produce 50 to 100 microdrama episodes and bring them to market.

It is a part of IMDA’s Digital Content and Capability Development (DCCD) programme launched earlier this year.

The first run of this programme will only be applicable to professionals from 20 accredited media companies.

IMDA has said that future editions of the programme may be expanded to a wider pool of applicants.

Microdramas are short, fast-paced series designed to be viewed vertically on smartphones, with each episode running from one to three minutes.

According to IMDA, microdramas and other short-form vertical video content have rapidly grown popular, with the global market projected to generate $150 billion in revenue this year.

Two tracks

The programme will last six to nine months, in which participants will learn microdrama storytelling techniques from TikTok and their partners.

These techniques and skills include vertical content production, cliffhanger design, and the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI).

Two tracks will be made available to participants.

The first is a live-action track, focusing on content filmed with live actors and real sets which may be supplemented with AI-augmented content.

The second is an AI-enabled animation track, which focuses on animated content generated using AI. Participants will learn, among other things, prompt engineering, character consistency planning, and Seedance 2.5, an AI video generation tool by TikTok's parent company ByteDance.

Participants will also be onboarded onto TikTok's wider content ecosystem, learning the full life cycle of content creation from delivery to distribution to audience engagement.

They will also receive bespoke consultancy to help their content reach global markets.

Yvonne Tang, the Assistant Chief Executive for IMDA's Media Industry Group, said that the partnership is an "important step towards building a vibrant, globally competitive media sector."

Warning: This article contains descriptions of mutilation. Discretion is advised.

A financial dispute was the main reason behind the gruesome murder and dismemberment of Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi, prosecutors told the Hong Kong High Court on Sep. 30.

They argued that Choi's former father-in-law enlisted his two sons, including her ex-husband, to help him kill her after he became "extremely resentful and angry" over her insistence on selling a HK$72 million (S$11.7 million) flat where he had been living, The South China Morning Post reported.

That was the first day of the court trial over the 28-year-old socialite's murder, which shocked the city when it happened in 2023.

Days after Choi was reported missing in February 2023, the police found some body parts believed to be hers in the refrigerator of a house her ex-husband's family was renting.

Police later found her head in pots filled with soup and minced meat.

Her ex-husband Alex Kwong, his brother Anthony Kwong, and his father Kwong Kau, were arrested and jointly charged with murder and with preventing the lawful burial of a body.

Difference in wealth

At court, prosecutor Charlotte Draycott pointed out that Choi and her ex-husband came from very different financial backgrounds.

Choi, born to a wealthy family in Hainan, China, married Alex Kwong when she was only 18 as she had become pregnant, according to Hong Kong's The Standard.

Throughout their marriage, Alex Kwong never held a stable job, and his family was not very well-off. His father was a retired police sergeant, while his brother Anthony Kwong was Choi's personal driver.

The couple thus depended on Choi’s family to support their expenses, Draycott told the court.

She also said Alex Kwong was involved in multiple online gold-trading scams, and was eventually arrested after fleeing with HK$6.2 million (S$1.01 million) he got from scamming people.

The flat in dispute

After Choi separated from him in 2015 and married someone else, she continued to provide "generous allowance" to the Kwong family, Draycott went on, as quoted by CNN.

This included buying an apartment so that the two children she had with Alex Kwong could live nearby.

According to The Standard, she registered the flat under Kwong Kau's name as a nominee owner to save on stamp duty.

In 2022, tensions grew when she tried to sell the flat and move her in-laws to another area where her children could go to school, Draycott said.

She asked her former father-in-law to vacate the flat and sign a power of attorney so that she could negotiate a sale with property agents, but he repeatedly refused.

On one occasion, he lost his temper and attempted to assault her over this dispute.

According to private audio messages to her mother, heard in court, Choi called Kwong Kau a "crook" and his wife a "ghost", SCMP reported.

In one message, Choi said, "A huge amount of money was spent on that flat, and it was spent for them. To be honest, for the sake of my children, for the sake of my two children and my good heart, that’s why she can lead such a good life, right?"

Murder plot

Draycott argued that Kwong Kau plotted to murder Choi.

"If she died, the flat would be in his name and he could move back there," the prosecutor said, as quoted by CNN.

"He made a plan with his two sons Alex, her ex-husband, and Anthony, and we say three of them decided they would do it together. Each of them played a part by bringing her death and burying her body."

According to SCMP, Choi's ex-husband and his brother pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful burial of her body, while their father pleaded not guilty to it.

However, all three of them denied murdering her.

Choi was a mother of four, two with Alex Kwong, and another two with her second husband.