British author Jeffrey Archer has died at the age of 86.

He died “suddenly and peacefully” at his home on Oct. 5, BBC reported.

This was a day before the global release of his final novel, "Adam and Eve", publisher HarperCollins said.

Passed away a day before last book was out

The new book, like his bestseller "Kane and Abel", follows a pair of biblically named characters born on the same day to different social classes.

The upcoming novel, a love story and class commentary, follows the daughter of an earl who wanted a son so he could pass down his estate, and the son of a shepherd who wanted a daughter because he knew a son would be sent to war.

Archer said: “'Adam and Eve' has proved the most satisfying thing I have ever written.”

He is survived by his wife of 60 years, two sons, two granddaughters and three grandsons, his publisher said.

He has sold more than 300 million copies of his books worldwide over his five-decade writing career.

First major success

Archer was plunged into financial ruin in his 30s after some bad investments.

His debut novel, "Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less", was released in 1976.

His experience of almost becoming bankrupt inspired the book.

He subsequently spent 14 years and five months on Britain's Sunday Times bestseller lists and over five years on The New York Times bestseller lists, according to HarperCollins.

Scandal-plagued politician

Archer was also a scandal-plagued politician, AFP reported.

He climbed the ranks of Britain’s Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher.

He was appointed in 1992 to the House of Lords by her successor, John Major.

Archer was cast out of his political party just before he was jailed on perjury charges in 2001.

What led to jail time

In 1999, Archer was running for mayor of London when allegations emerged that he had lied in court during a libel case in the 1980s.

In the 1987 case, he had sued a newspaper, The Daily Star, that accused him of paying a sex worker and won £500,000 (S$846,200) in damages.

But a jury found that Archer had made up an alibi.

He was given a four-year jail sentence.

Archer was released early in 2003 after serving just over two years.

He returned to the House of Lords, but without any political affiliation.

There was no legal avenue to remove him from the upper house of parliament at the time.

He retired in 2024.

Thai authorities are investigating an elderly and psychiatric care facility in Kachanaburi after it was discovered that some of its patients are sleeping in beds enclosed by a metal frame.

Rooms enclosed by metal bars were also discovered.

The case apparently came to light after an elderly woman went on a television programme to accuse her son and daughter-in-law of tricking her into moving into the care facility in order to take over her business.

Woman's on-air allegations

According to Bangkok Post, the woman alleged that she was kept at the care facility against her will for more than two years.

While there, she was reportedly assaulted, threatened and forced to medicate.

She managed to contact her sister in secret and sought help leaving.

The woman's on-air allegations prompted the local authorities to visit the care centre on Oct. 5 evening.

Thai authorities find enclosed sleeping areas, beds

Thailand's Central Investigation Bureau released images of the facility from the visit, showing sleeping areas fitted with metal cages and padlocks, Thai PBS World reported.

The perimeter of the complex also had barbed wire and steel frames.

Elderly patients were also found sleeping in beds enclosed by a metal cage bolted to the bed frame.

Necessary permits and licenses obtained, says owner

According to the facility's owner, the facility was opened in 2006.

It became a registered facility caring for elderly and dependent patients in 2021, Bangkok Post reported.

These patients include those receiving psychiatric and rehabilitative care.

The owner also said that necessary permits from relevant authorities have been obtained.

The centre's license was presented to officers during the inspection.

92 patients are currently housed at the facility, 75 of whom are male and 17 female.

Of these, a total of 81 are receiving psychiatric care.

19 caregivers are employed there.

The owner explained that those with severe psychiatric conditions are housed in rooms fitted with steel-bar enclosures as they may damage property, self-harm or wander about.

Local police are continuing with their investigations, Bangkok Post wrote.

A police officer in Shanghai has drawn praise online after firmly but politely telling a foreign tourist not to touch her while they posed for a photo.

The encounter took place at the Bund during China’s National Day holiday, according to Sing Tao Headline.

The officer was identified as Qian Xueying, a member of Shanghai’s special police unit.

Agreed to photo, declined physical contact

In videos circulating on the Chinese social media platform Douyin, a tourist can be seen approaching Qian while she was on duty to ask if he could take a photo with her.

She agreed, but while they were posing, he placed his arm around her shoulders.

Qian stepped slightly away and politely said: “Don’t touch me.”

The tourist can be seen pulling back his arm.

Qian then continued posing for the photo.

After the photo was taken, the two thanked each other and the tourist left.

Praised for setting boundaries

The video drew praise online, with commenters commending Qian for remaining courteous while making her boundaries clear.

Several highlighted her composure and measured response to the tourist’s gesture. Others praised her for being gracious and principled, expressing support for her decision to draw the line at physical contact.

Former sprinter

Qian was an athlete before becoming a police officer.

According to a June 2025 profile published on The Paper’s Pengpaihao platform, she and her teammates won silver in the women’s 4x100m relay at China’s national athletics championships in 2019.

She now serves in the Shanghai Public Security Bureau’s special police unit.

After joining the police, she placed first in the obstacle event at a Shanghai special police skills competition and earned recognition as an exemplary officer.

HK01 reported that she had previously attracted attention online, with foreign tourists often queuing to take photos with her.

A 19-year-old woman, a student, was found dead in a rental house in Kuantan, Malaysia on Oct. 6.

Police responded to a call from the suspect at about 4:30am, reported Malay Mail.

The suspect, a 19-year-old man, reported a fight between him and his girlfriend, according to Sinar Harian.

Officers were dispatched to the house in Jalar Air Putih 2 and found the girl unconscious in a room on the ground floor.

Examinations by a forensic specialist found signs of pressure on her neck, and she was subsequently pronounced dead.

In a romantic relationship

The suspect and victim were in a romantic relationship and rented two rooms with two other students at the guesthouse where the incident occurred, China Press reported.

The suspect was reportedly extremely jealous and would feel unhappy whenever the victim talked to other people.

According to China Press, a heated argument was heard inside the apartment early that morning, prompting their roommates to go over and stop the argument.

However, they were apparently unable to intervene further.

The suspect has since been brought before the Kuantan Magistrate’s Court, where he has been remanded for seven days.

A post-mortem examination will be carried out to determine the cause of death.

On the back of proposed amendments to the Finance (Income Taxes) Bill, several members of parliament took the opportunity to bring up the topic of inheritance tax.

MPs Elysa Chen and Shawn Loh in particular called for taxes for people who own multiple properties, amid growing concerns about wealth inequality in Singapore.

Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow said that such topics "actually go beyond the scope of this bill", and encouraged members to file parliamentary questions at a later sitting.

S'pore not a game of monopoly: Elysa Chen

Speaking ahead of the reading of the Bill on Oct. 6, Chen said that "hoarding"  properties can worsen inequality at the expense of other Singaporeans.

"A home is not like other assets. If someone buys gold or shares, no young couple is worse off," she said.

"But in land-scarce Singapore, when one person holds a fifth or 10th residential property, it takes away another family's chance at a home."

She pointed to a family dispute at High Court last year, in which a woman was found to own 25 properties despite registering them partly in her children's names.

Chen added that while the government has introduced at least 15 rounds of property cooling, residential property prices have risen in a manner out of proportion to real wages.

In addition, as Singapore has no inheritance tax or capital gains tax, the property can appreciate across a lifetime, and compound as an asset over generations.

"The young couple at the viewing, bidding against an investor who already owns four properties, is not competing on equal terms. They are competing against accumulated advantages, built up over decades," she said.

Wealth should flow

Chen said that Singaporeans already accept the logic of contributing more for more properties, with the additional buyer's stamp duty.

But she called for the same logic to continue "beyond the day of purchase, and into the years of holding".

For instance, rental income tax rates could increase progressively with an individual's third property and beyond, barring the first two for occupation and investment.

Chen pointed out that this is not a call for Singaporeans to "resent success", but for wealth to flow into industry instead of being hoarded in housing.

"Wealth packed in housing is not flowing and building anything else...

Let us make it less attractive to hoard homes, and correspondingly more attractive to put money into venture capital, into private capital, into our SMEs, into companies listed on the SGX, into funds managed in Singapore."

She hence asked the government to study a progressive holding tax on multiple investment residential properties.

Wealth divide 'one of greatest challenges of our time': Shawn Loh

Loh called the growing wealth divide "one of the greatest challenges of our time".

He said that if the problem worsens, the government should be prepared to increase property taxes further to reduce income inequality across the generations.

In particular, he suggested that the government consider two things: Property taxes on higher-value investment properties, and taxes on wealth "that is not earned but inherited", namely an inheritance tax.

Should property owners wish to reduce their tax obligations, they have the option to contribute to charitable causes, he pointed out.

Collective success

Loh added that much of Singapore's wealth is stored in property.

However, the increase in property value is due to the nation's collective success, rather than the efforts of the property owners alone.

As such, it follows that part of the increase in property values "should be shared with those that have less".

"Mr Speaker, taxation is a politically sensitive policy area. As it involves government taking from some and redistributing it to others, no one can be entirely happy about it.

But we must accept that no one is successful on his or her own. We must accept that we need to support one another and ensure fair access to opportunities for those who are not related to us by blood or name, but who are part of this same country that we live and work in."

The 73-year-old man who died following an incident at Block 61 Telok Blangah Heights is remembered as a friendly person who frequented the coffee shop almost daily with his wife.

A 32-year-old man has been arrested and will be charged with murder after he allegedly stabbed the victim at about 6pm that day, according to Lianhe Zaobao.

Another 53-year-old man was also injured in the incident.

2 men covered in blood

According to Zaobao, a coffee shop vendor said he saw the two men, covered in blood, running from the direction of Block 56 towards the coffee shop.

The 73-year-old man appeared to have suffered a stab wound to his right chest and was bleeding heavily.

The other man was believed to have sustained injuries to his head and neck. His yellow shirt was stained with blood around his left shoulder.

Someone at the coffee shop reportedly called the police, while members of the public helped the injured men.

The 73-year-old man was placed on a seat as people tried to stop his bleeding by pressing a cloth against his wound.

However, his condition appeared to worsen before he eventually slumped in the chair, the vendor told Zaobao.

The man was subsequently taken to hospital, where he later died.

Victim was a regular at the coffee shop

Another vendor told Zaobao that the deceased lived nearby and was a friendly person.

He reportedly visited the coffee shop almost every day with his wife, where they would sit quietly and eat.

A 66-year-old retired resident surnamed Liu, who lives at Block 56, told the Chinese newspaper that a friend had seen the deceased sitting near the block's mailbox before the incident.

However, the friend did not know what happened afterwards.

Suspect reportedly remained at scene

The suspect reportedly remained downstairs after the incident, with a knife beside him.

Those interviewed by Zaobao said the man appeared dazed, and some speculated that he might have been under the influence of drugs.

Police investigations are ongoing.

Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit made a triumphant return to Formula 1 over the weekend, after nine years off the schedule.

The race was not without incident, from software glitches to rain delays, but still managed to deliver a memorable race.

Off the track, however, the race was memorable for other reasons, with many of the traditional gripes about the track returning to the fore, but not all.

With the transport situation at the circuit so bad that one Malaysian decided it was more practical to hoof it back to Kuala Lumpur rather than wait, and others compared the first day’s footrace for bus places to scenes from “Train to Busan”, why was the event so chaotic?

Nine-year gap

First things first: the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia is, by most measures, a remarkable achievement.

First announced 10 weeks ago in Jul. 2026, when, due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, it was no longer feasible to hold the Grand Prix in Bahrain.

The plan was to hold Bahrain’s F1 race in Malaysia, meaning that while the race would be physically held at Sepang, the branding and organising would belong almost entirely to Bahrain.

It also meant that a year’s worth of planning had to be done over the span of two and a half months.

Anticipation and difficulties

It is hard to overstate how highly anticipated this race was, and how excited local and international fans were at the news.

The Sepang International Circuit is a unique track, not just because of what is almost universally considered an excellent layout, but also because, unlike many tropical or desert races, it is held entirely during the day, making the running very challenging.

Also, it's Malaysia: torrential rain at any time is always a possibility, meaning that races are often held in less-than-ideal conditions, making racing more exciting.

But for these reasons, the race is also challenging to attend, and towards the end of its tenure, while the race was beloved by those watching on TV, local attendance had dipped to around 40,000 to 50,000.

Total attendance over the whole race weekend saw a record-setting 261,000 spectators, with over 100,000 attendees a day on Saturday and Sunday, as reported by Bernama.

This is considerably higher than even the crowd that shows up for the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix (MotoGP), which is just shy of 200,000 attendees.

Three-hour waits

F1 fans from across the region and the world took the chance to return to Sepang, and while they were rewarded on the track, it appears the organisers were unprepared for how many of them there were.

Personal testimony shows punters stuck at the circuit as many as 3 hours after the event ended, even on the final race day.

While it was possible to drive to the circuit, parking space was limited and costly, and motorcycles were barred from the circuit.

This essentially left one way out: the buses. (Or walking)

Limited arrangements

Accounts on social media showed some attendees blindsided by the public transport arrangements.

While buses were available, they were not available from the centre of KL, instead going to and from the KLIA Terminal 2 building, where attendees were meant to take the airport train back to KL.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Bahrain International Circuit (@bah_int_circuit)

This is in contrast to the transport arrangements during the 2025 MotoGP, organised by Sepang, which saw shuttle buses heading to KLIA Terminal 2, but also to KLCC, in the heart of the city.

Some attendees of the recent MotoGP events might have expected the same arrangements, but this was, of course, never going to be a like-for-like, due to the aforementioned administrative differences.

Organisers were required to ensure the race was in adequate condition, that the technical facilities for the F1 teams were available, from garages to client hosting facilities.

And by many measures, they did a really good job, with the venue hosting recreations of a Bahraini market, although issues such as a technical glitch and rain delay did pop up.

But when it came to transport, they appear to have fallen short.

Food and water

Transport was not the only source of chaos.

Food and drink became an issue as well, with many Malaysians complaining about the steep price of food at the circuit.

One example from Scoop showed fried rice being sold for RM50 (S$ 15.70), rather than the RM7 (S$2.20) it might have cost elsewhere.

But perhaps the most concerning was the price of water, with bottles reaching RM10 (S$3.14) at the main grandstand area.

Organisers also allegedly prevented attendees from bringing their own water bottles, leading to pictures of piles of discarded water bottles at the entry areas, as reported by The Rakyat Post.

To rub salt into the sunburnt wounds, there appears to have been no shade provided in the areas where attendees were meant to queue for water and food.

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A post shared by Kym Illman F1 (@kymillman)

Suffering from success

Most of the issues appeared to stem from short timelines, unfamiliarity with local conditions, and perhaps most of all, the event suffering from a severe bout of success.

The quality of racing was never in question. It was just that the track was always just a little too far, a little too hot, and a little too uncomfortable to go back to.

So while the race was a must-watch on TV, in-person attendance dwindled.

There remains the lingering worry that what once happened to Sepang might happen again. But even the most hardy pessimist who just witnessed the crowds from this year's Sepang might wonder if attendance could ever dwindle to that extent.

With everyone from Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to F1 commentators declaring their love for Sepang, the chances of the track making a permanent return have never been higher. Although, according to ESPN, due to the deals in place, the earliest it could theoretically return is in 2030.

An American skater and content creator recently filmed himself using the Henderson Waves bridge as a skate ramp.

Jimmy Larsen, who makes skate content under the username @offgridskater, posted videos on various social media platforms showing how he skated at Henderson Waves.

View on Threads

 

Using the bridge's high curved and sloping wall as a ramp, he performed various tricks.

This included an ollie, where he leapt into the air with the board without his hands, kicking off from the wall.

He even climbed over the safety railing to access the arch that hangs overhead the bridge, in order to perform a vertical drop.

Henderson Waves is a pedestrian bridge that forms part of the Southern Ridges walking trail, and is the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore at an elevation of 36 metres.

In a YouTube video, Larsen explained that he got the idea to skate Henderson Waves after watching a similar video "from 14 years ago".

He was in Singapore for only a few hours, flying in from the Philippines en route to Malaysia.

Online reception

Larsen was met with heavy criticism by some members of the public on Threads.

They chided him for being inconsiderate of "shared infrastructure" and pointed out that all wheeled devices, including bicycles and skateboards, were banned on Henderson Waves.

Some others also were shocked that he climbed over the safety railing to perform the trick, given Henderson Waves' height.

One user also posted a photo of what appeared to be a sign from Henderson Waves, stating that skating, skateboarding and cycling are banned on the bridge,

However, on YouTube, where his video was seen mostly by fellow skate enthusiasts around the world, many expressed their admiration at the beauty of the spot.

Larsen's online moniker was coined as he lived off-the-grid in America, meaning that he lived without relying on public utilities such as electricity or water.

Another YouTube video shows his home in a desert in America, where he finds strange or abandoned places to repurpose as skate platforms.

Mothership has reached out to Larsen and the National Parks Board for comment.

A 25-year-old woman was found lying motionless at the foot of Regent Residences, a condominium in the Serangoon and Boon Keng area, on Oct. 4, 2026.

The police confirmed with Mothership that they were alerted to a case of fall from height at 1091 Serangoon Road at about 11:35am.

She was pronounced dead at the scene by a Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) paramedic.

Based on preliminary investigations, the police do not suspect foul play.

Police investigations are ongoing.

A third Singaporean has been named on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s list of “worst of worst criminal aliens”.

Jing Emtage, 54, was arrested in May 2023 with her husband following an investigation that began in 2021.

She was convicted of operating a prostitution ring disguised as legitimate massage parlours, it was previously reported.

She is held at the an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing centre in Washington.

Crimes

Nine massage parlours belonging to the couple were shut down during the two-year operation by authorities.

A total of 23 women who had been trafficked and forced to provide sexual services were rescued.

The Singaporean woman was sentenced to two years and two months' jail on Jul. 25, 2025.

She was charged with seven counts of promoting prostitution in the second degree.

Her husband Gerald Emtage, 49, was given 38 months’ jail for promoting prostitution.

The punishment meted out to both of them includes a 12-month jail term each for money laundering.

Prosecutors said the couple made “significant profits”.

The couple lived in a house that apparently cost more than US$1 million (S$1.28 million).

There were no records of wages being paid to the dozens of women who lived in the massage parlours.

The couple had more than US$600,000 (S$768,000) in cash when arrested.

How she met her husband

The woman ran a massage therapy business in Singapore before moving to the U.S. in January 2018.

While there, she met her husband.

They got married in December 2019, according to her sentencing memorandum, it was reported.

The document said the Covid-19 pandemic caused financial losses for their legitimate massage business.

This caused them to offer illicit services.

The memorandum called for leniency.

Was waiting to be deported

The Seattle branch of ICE posted on social media in August 2026 that the Singaporean was waiting to be deported.

The “worst of worst criminal aliens” list on the Department of Homeland Security website was launched in December 2025.

Amos Yee was the first Singaporean added to the list when it was launched.

He was deported to Singapore in March 2026 after going to jail in the U.S. for child pornography and sexual grooming.

A second Singaporean, Lim Seok Pheng, was added to the list in February 2026.

She was arrested for suspected money laundering.

She then provided information, which led to the prosecution of those who were laundering money for Mexican drug cartels.