A man in China who had almost no relatives to attend his wedding decided to make a public invitation on the internet.

Thousands answered the call, travelling from all across China to participate in what was dubbed the "wedding of the century".

Many brought gifts, while others arrived days in advance to help with wedding preparations.

Tough childhood

24-year-old Xu Chenghong, known by his Douyin handle "Xiao Xiao Xu", had a tough childhood in Yunnan, China.

According to a video he posted on Douyin, his father passed away when he was three while his mother remarried two years later.

Xu's grandmother also passed away two years later, leaving Xu and his older brother to depend on each other.

Because of these incidents, Xu refers to himself as an "orphan".

After dropping out of junior high school, he grew up working odd jobs like delivery and construction, eventually saving up enough money for his wedding.

Fearing that the couple's lack of close relatives meant that the wedding would be a quiet affair, Xu posted a video on Douyin on Oct. 25, inviting netizens to attend the wedding banquet on Oct. 31.

He was expecting 10 to 20 attendees from around the area.

Grand celebration

The day before the wedding, thousands of guests showed up.

According to a Sichuan news outlet that attended the event, the wedding's lively atmosphere could be heard from at least a kilometre away, while vehicles lined the rural roads as part of the wedding procession.

Cars with licence plates from provinces like Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Guangdong and Fujian were also seen at the venue.

An attendee told the media outlet that he had travelled from Guangdong after being moved by Xu's video.

"It has not been easy for him. We just wanted to come and join in the fun and support him," the man said, adding that he invited others along on their long journey to Yunnan.

The wedding square was also reportedly decorated with wedding banners.

According to Chinese media outlet The Paper, guests brought food like pork and vegetables, freezers and heaters were delivered, others helped with setting up the venue, and some offered photography, styling and makeup services.

Chefs showed up to cook meals for free, while volunteers helped to coordinate the event.

Xu's brother also partook in the preparations, providing directions and assistance to guests where he could.

"People have come all this way, and what I fear most is not letting them eat well," he told the media.

A 23-year-old man in Hawaii chased a woman and picked her up in an alleged attempt to kidnap her.

However, the woman broke free.

Surveillance cameras captured the entire incident, and police subsequently arrested the man.

He has since been charged with kidnapping.

According to the Honolulu Police Department, the incident took place on Oct. 26 at around 12pm in Waikiki.

The police stated that a female was grabbed by an unknown male who tried to carry her to his vehicle.

The woman broke free, and the man fled the scene in his car.

At about 2:39pm, police located and arrested the man.

The man was charged with kidnapping, and his bail was set at US$500,000.

Running naked

According to local news outlet Hawaii News Now, the suspect was identified as 23-year-old Diesel Kawelo.

Kawelo parked his vehicle, left one door open, and stalked two women, 24 and 77, from behind.

He then picked up the 24-year-old woman and carried her for a short distance, said the police.

In the surveillance footage, the woman could be seen struggling.

The police added that the woman was pulling his hair and screaming for help.

Kawelo then dropped the woman about 1.2m away from his vehicle and fled the scene.

Witnesses said the woman broke free after nearby neighbours stepped in, Hawaii News Now reported.

One neighbour told the news outlet that she saw a man "bear-hugging" the vicim and dragging the victim to the back of his truck.

The neighbour shared that she started screaming at the man to drop the victim and noted that the victim was also "screaming for her life".

Another neighbour yelled at him to let her go and said he called the police.

Hawaii News Now stated that Kawelo was later arrested, and the police said he was running naked before they detained him.

The U.S. woman who survived two doses of lethal injection has come out to share about her recovery, stating that "there hasn't been a moment since that night when [she hasn't] been in pain."

According to CNN, Christa Pike said in a written statement that her body, arms, hands and throat hurt and she struggles to speak.

"And the pain isn't just physical," she added. "There is pain in my mind and in my soul."

Prepared to die

In her statement, Pike said that she was "prepared to die", but she woke up in the hospital confused and in pain, CNN reported.

Pike has since returned to prison after a 10-day hospitalisation, her lawyers stated.

Pike added in her statement that she has been largely isolated in the prison's medical ward, away from others and the "human connections that mean so much to me".

"That isolation brings its own kind of pain. I spent 28 years in solitary confinement and much of what I am experiencing today is a repeat of that condition."

Her crime

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 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.

Survived

Pike was scheduled to be executed in Tennessee, U.S., 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 she was taken by an ambulance from the prison.

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 after 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, 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.

Pike is the only person to survive after receiving the drugs, the Death Penalty Information Centre stated.

Following the failed execution, Tennessee's governor ordered an investigation into what went wrong, said CNN.

Related story

A pair of Singaporean brothers running a hawker stall in Chinatown Complex had earlier decided to shutter the business after just five months.

Scott Lee, 29, and Troy Lee, 31, had quit their finance jobs to open the Singaporean-Malaysian yong tau foo stall.

The impending closure announcement had come as a shock to some customers, Scott told Shin Min.

Good news for those folks then, as "New Horse Noodles" will continue running, at least for now.

The younger Lee surprised his customers by announcing that he had decided to resume business, albeit without his older brother.

70 hours a week

Before becoming hawkers, the two owners of "New Horse Noodles" worked stable jobs in the finance industry.

Scott was a fintech product manager while Troy was a stock trader, according to Lianhe Zaobao.

The pair sold handmade Hakka yong tau foo, as well as Malaysian-style dry noodles.

But the work turned out to be more tiring than the brothers had anticipated, with the first day of business attracting more customers than they were prepared for.

An accumulation of daily tasks, such as washing hundreds of bowls a day, also began to wear them down.

On top of that, they were making much less than they did previously despite working 70 hours a week,.

"More effort, less pay," Troy described the experience.

By August, the pair started considering shuttering the business.

They had earlier made an announcement that their last day of business would be on Oct. 25 as they "did not wish to live this kind of life in the long term".

Reopening

On Oct. 23, Scott posted a video on the stall's Facebook page that he had decided to keep the stall running, though without his brother.

He announced that he would hire a stall assistant in order to focus on serving customers.

"We can't promise that we'll be here forever, so we'll just take it one month at a time lor," he said.

The younger Lee added that he had received a lot of support from customers after his initial closing announcement.

"I see this trade as something that is more than just food. I see it as I'm building relationships with all my customers, and that's the part I love the most."

He resumed operations alone on Oct. 26, according to another Facebook post.

On Oct. 27, he updated customers that the stall would be opening six days a week, with the exception of Fridays, instead of the previous five days per week.

The change is to accommodate the higher costs of running the stall after hiring an assistant, he explained.

A teacher in New Jersey pleaded guilty to having sex with a student.

Laura Caron engaged in sexual activities with the teen from 2016 to 2020.

Investigators said she sexually assaulted the boy since he was 11.

Caron would then end up having a daughter in 2019. This would be when the boy was 13.

The boy was an ex-student of Caron from when she was teaching in elementary school.

According to media reports, the sexual relations were only uncovered in 2024, when the father of the victim claimed Caron's then-5-year-old child "closely resembled him and his son", prompting an inquiry and subsequent investigation.

Caron pleaded guilty to second-degree endangering the welfare of a child with sexual conduct. She will face a 5-year-sentence, a forfeiture of her teaching license, and a lifetime parole supervision.

According to The New York Post, the victim, now 21, has defended Caron, and claimed he was the one who initiated the sexual encounters.

However, the victim was underaged then, making consent legally irrelevant.

Chipotle is opening their first restaurant in Southeast Asia at Jewel Changi Airport in 2027.

Chipotle is a chain of fast-casual restaurants that specialises in customisable burritos, burrito bowls and tacos.

Chipotle had announced their intentions to open a while back, but did not confirm a location then.

According to a press release by Chipotle Singapore, the brand is operated by S&C Restaurants Holdings, a joint venture between Chipotle and Big Bite Company.

Big Bite Company, on the other hand, is an affiliate of Sangmidang Holdings, which already owns many major brands, including Paris Baguette.

Further information on the exact opening date, menu and launch activities will be revealed closer to the opening.

After an argument with a man, a woman jumped from a condominium, naked, and survived.

According to Khaosod English, the 32-year-old woman from Uzbekistan jumped naked from the eighth floor of a condo in Pattaya on Oct. 31 at around 3am.

The woman survived by landing in the condo's swimming pool and suffered no injuries.

Reports of a fight

Khaosod English reported that the woman got into a heated argument with a 41-year-old Turkish man in the room.

A rescue volunteer told the news outlet that the man, who sustained a head injury and was bleeding, ran downstairs to seek help.

Meanwhile, the woman locked the door from inside the room and went out on the balcony naked.

When police later searched the room, they discovered drug paraphernalia as well as signs of a struggle.

Sin Chew Daily News added that when the woman was found, she was intoxicated, incoherent, and did not have any clothes on.

Rescue workers who attended to the scene covered the woman up with a towel.

Police are investigating the reason behind the argument and are questioning the two before taking further legal action, Khaosod English said.

A Tengah resident brought the Halloween spirit right to his doorstep with spooky decorations along his corridor.

Speaking to Mothership, Tony Tan, 37, said celebrating Halloween with his children has been a family tradition.

Having moved into the Tengah estate last year, this is the family's first time taking part in the neighbourhood's trick-or-treat event on Oct. 31.

To join in the festivities, Tan decided to decorate his corridor for the occasion, with permission from his next-door neighbours.

He said it took him about one to two hours to set everything up.

His decorations included a giant pumpkin photo spot and a corner filled with skeletons and mummies, complete with neon lighting to set the spooky mood.

And what's Halloween without spooky jump scares?

Talk about a miracle and the connectedness of the internet.

After a heavy downpour subsided, a bicycle was found left behind in a canal in the Hillview area.

The two-wheeler appeared to be in relatively good condition.

According to 8World, Christopher Koh and a neighbour decided to retrieve it using a rock-climbing rope to haul the bicycle out of the storm drain.

Koh brought the bicycle back to his nearby workshop, took some photos and posted about it on a local cycling Facebook group, SG PCN Cyclist, in hopes of reuniting it with its owner.

When a commenter asked if a person might have ridden the bicycle into the drain, Koh said the bike had been locked with a chain that went through the frame and the rear wheel.

This meant it was unlikely that someone had fallen into the storm drain.

But the truth, it seems, was stranger than fiction.

Because someone did fall into the drain while riding the bicycle.

A dark and stormy night

It turns out that on Oct. 25, a 19-year-old delivery rider was cycling near The Lanai condominium in Hillview during a heavy downpour.

Because of the rain and poor visibility, and in addition to the area being very dark and the rider having taken off his glasses, he failed to notice the canal in front of him until it was too late to stop.

He was initially worried that a collision with the canal fence would puncture his tyres.

Instead, that was not the worst fear to come true.

He was flung over the fence with his bike into the canal below, which was about 2m deep.

After coming to his senses, he struggled to stand in the drain, as water rushed in.

His phone was washed off the phone holder, which meant that he was unable to call for help.

Picking up his bike on his shoulder, which weighed about 8kg, according to Shin Min Daily News, the rider called out for help for an estimated 20 minutes, but to no avail.

The water was about 40cm high.

Climbed out but lost his bike

Deciding that help was not coming and that he would need to get himself out, he locked his bike and tried to secure it to a canal pipe.

He then attempted to climb out and return later to retrieve his bicycle.

But as soon as he was able to get out, the bike was washed away by the waters.

Due to his injuries, the rider decided against trying to retrieve his bike and sought help for his injuries.

It was only later, after contacting PUB for help, that the national water agency directed him to Koh’s post.

This was where the rider then recounted his incredible story in the comments section.

PUB had tried to help him find his bike the day after the incident, but was unable to locate it.

Passing on kindness

Koh said he had found the bicycle in good condition on Oct. 26, and had carefully lifted the bike out the canal with a neighbour's help, who provided rope and a pair of bolt cutters for the lock.

In response to questions from Mothership, Koh joked that the situation must have made his neighbour and him look like thieves.

But he wheeled the bicycle to his nearby workshop and washed it off as it smelt of drain water.

The next day he spent a short time making the bike rideable again, although he noted that there were further damages that would need to be fixed, such as punctured inner tube tires and a cracked fibre rim.

He also replaced bolts on the bicycle's handlebar stem, which turned out to be unique blue and silver bolts, and were likely to have been installed after purchase.

Verifying the owner

It was this detail that the rider was able to provide to him that convinced him that the claimant was really the owner of the bike.

Koh had set up a few authentication tests to ensure that a claimant was really the owner, including looking for previous photos of the bike and answering questions about a unique bolt that could not be seen in Koh’s own photos.

When the rider claimed the bike, he was able to pass the tests and offered to pay for the repairs, but Koh declined when he learned the rider’s age.

Koh told 8 World that he had been the recipient of help from many kind people over the years, and that he hoped to pass on that kindness.

Instead, he said he hoped that the rider would save his money to replace his phone, and that despite that loss, the retrieval of his bicycle would set his mind at ease.

A fundraiser has been set up for the six-year-old son of the couple who died after a hit-and-run accident at Tampines Avenue 12.

The couple, both aged 24, died on Oct. 29 after a car crashed into their motorcycle and another car.

A 30-year-old man has since been charged with dangerous driving causing death, along with eight other charges.

A gag order was imposed on the victims' identities on Oct. 31.

As such, the media is prohibited from reporting the names and photographs of the victims and any identifiers.

Fundraiser

The fundraiser was set up on Give.Asia by the cousin of the deceased man, with the intention to establish a dedicated savings arrangement for the six-year-old boy.

A total of S$8,680 has been raised as of writing.

According to her, the couple was recently married and were planning to apply for a Built-to-Order (BTO) flat.

"No amount of money can replace the love of a mother and father," the cousin wrote.

"This campaign is for everyone who has reached out, asked how they can help and wanted to do something for this little boy."

She added that the family has come together to look after the boy, and will give him the support he needs and the opportunities he deserves as he grows up.

He is currently under the care of his late mother's family, while the family works towards settling his legal guardianship arrangements, she shared.