The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) on Monday approved 16 species of insects including various species of crickets, mealworms, grasshoppers, locusts and silkworms for human consumption. The announcement has delighted industry players who have been gearing up for this long-awaited moment.

”With immediate effect, SFA will allow the import of insects and insect products belonging to species that have been assessed to be of low regulatory concern. These insects and insect products can be used for human consumption or as animal feed for food-producing animals,” the agency said in a circular addressed to processed food and animal feed traders. 

According to the Straits Times, suppliers and caterers in Singapore have been gearing up to source insects from regulated farms in China, Thailand, and Vietnam.

SFA guidelines mandate that imported or locally farmed insects must adhere to strict food safety controls, ensuring they are not harvested from the wild. Insects that are not on SFA’s list of 16 will have to undergo an evaluation to ensure that the species are safe to consume, the agency said.

Further, companies selling pre-packaged food containing insects will also be required to label their packaging as such. Those that are found to be non-compliant with its food safety regulations will not be allowed for sale.

Restaurants gearing up

Meanwhile, several restaurants and cafes are gearing up to prepare new dishes made of insects that they hope will increase their sales and attract customers. House of Seafood restaurant’s chief executive Francis Ng said he is cooking up a menu of 30 insect-infused dishes. The insects will be added to some of its seafood dishes, such as salted egg crab, for example.

Mr Ng said that his restaurant had been getting five to six calls daily inquiring about its insect-based dishes, and when customers can start ordering them.

“Many of our customers, especially young people who are under 30 years old, are very daring. They want to be able to see the whole insect in the dish. So I’m giving them many options to choose from,” he said.

He anticipates that sales from insect-based dishes will increase his revenue by around 30 per cent.

According to Channel News Asia, crickets, grasshoppers and mealworms, are rich in protein. These insects also contain plenty of antioxidants and minerals including iron, zinc, copper and magnesium.  

Singapore:

A court in SIngapore on Monday allowed an Indian-origin Singaporean woman, who was charged with organising a pro-Palestine procession without a permit, to leave the country to visit her grandparents in Kerala.

Annamalai Kokila Parvathi, 35, had organised the procession in February with two others to show support for the Palestinian cause without a permit. A permit from the authority for holding a procession is mandatory according to the law here.

Ms Parvathi, who is currently on bail, had applied for permission to go to Kerala to visit her grandparents there, The Straits Times newspaper reported.

District Judge Lorraine Ho granted the application for Ms Parvathi to leave the jurisdiction, imposing several additional conditions, including an additional bail of SGD10,000, the report said.

Ms Parvathi, along with two others, was charged on June 27 with one count of abetment of organising a public procession in a prohibited area under the Public Order Act. She was on bail of SGD 5,000.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Sunil Nair said Ms Parvathi did not demonstrate the urgency of the travel, but that the prosecution was not rejecting the application because the travel booking was made before the charges were tendered. He asked for additional bail of SGD 10,000, saying that a higher bail amount was sought as she was assessed to be of moderate flight risk, without adding details.

Singapore strictly regulates protests, and public demonstrations advocating causes of other countries are not allowed. The war in Gaza has been a particularly sensitive issue for the city-state that has a significant Muslim population and also maintains a close relationship with Israel.

Though the authorities have urged Singaporeans not to stage protests on the issue and instead participate in dialogues and donation drives, there has been deep concern about the war and some Singaporeans, particularly younger ones, have been vocal in expressing their views online and desiring to make themselves heard. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Singapore:

Singapore’s Indian-origin Leader of Opposition Pritam Singh has been re-elected secretary-general of the Workers’ Party (WP), ahead of the city-state’s next general election.

A total of 14 members, led by re-elected chairwoman Sylvia Lim, were voted into the Central Executive Committee (CEC) — the top decision-making body of the Workers’ Party (WP).

Singh, 48, was elected unopposed on Sunday. He has been WP’s secretary-general since 2018.

“Fantastic result. We’re looking forward to working with this CEC for the next two years,” Singh told reporters.

“This wasn’t about candidature, this was an internal party election, so my comments will be restricted to that,” Channel News Asia quoted Singh as saying.

Media reports say the WP CEC, elected for two years, is set for the city-state’s next general election, which has to be called by November 2025 but could be held earlier, sometime in November this year.

Singh was charged in court on March 19 for lying in Parliament about a case involving former WP member Raeesah Khan.

Khan had allegedly lied in Parliament in 2021 over a sexual assault case and accused the police of mishandling the case.

Singh, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, is set to go on trial in October.

His trial is set for October and November, media reports said, citing court records on May 31.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Panic ensued at a casino in Singapore after a man suffered a heart attack while celebrating his 3.2 million pound (Rs 33,76,45,600) jackpot. According to news.com.au, the incident happened at the Marina Bay Sands Casino in Singapore on June 22. The unnamed man, a regular visitor to the casino, was left overjoyed after he won the life-changing amount. As he was celebrating and punching the air in sheer joy., he suddenly fell to the ground having a cardiac arrest. 

As he collapsed, horrified bystanders gathered around him as the staff rushed to help him. A woman accompanying the man became increasingly worried and was heard pleading with the staff as they tried to administer medical assistance. He was quickly rushed to the hospital where he is recovering from cardiac arrest.

Meanwhile, many social media reports suggested the man died, however, industry insiders said that the man is alive and still in recovery at the hospital. 

A spokesperson for the casino condemned the false reporting, highlighting the distress it has caused the man’s family. ”Unfortunately, the fake news has spread, and the video still circulating online is causing some distress to the guest’s family,” he said. Some sources have also disputed the amount that the gambler won, however, there is no official clarification of it yet. 

The casino is owned and operated by Las Vegas Sands, a Nevada-based company pulling revenues of $10.4 billion last year.

In a similar incident in 2021, a man in Michigan in the US was found washed up dead on a beach with the winning ticket in his pocket. A similar unfortunate incident happened in the US in April after a man fell into cardiac arrest while sitting at a Las Vegas blackjack table.

A human resource employee in Singapore has been jailed for 18 months for making bogus pay claims for herself involving $148,000. According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Tan Lee Nah, 53, was in charge of the payroll system at D’Perception Singapore, an interior design firm. In May 2017, just two months after joining the company, she started to submit false claims for expenses, up until she was caught in November 2019. In these 2.5 years, she managed to give herself $148,000 in unauthorised pay rise to fund her child’s tuition fee and her parent’s medical bills. 

According to SCMP, a judge said that Ms Tan treated the company’s coffers like her “personal piggy bank”. The court found that she claimed false travel expenses, ranging from $750 to $7,300 each month. 

From January to November 2019, she added mobile phone expenses, paid holiday allowances and some extra expenses to her claims. In 2017, she was asked to transfer money to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) as two month’s contributions for a new employee. However, she misappropriated the cheques and put them in her account, the outlet reported. 

Notably, Ms Tan was the sole person with the password to the company’s payroll system, and it was routine practice for her to input all the staff’s salaries into the system. 

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Her scheme was exposed when an employee saw a copy of Ms Tan’s salary statement on the printer, which showed she had received allowances in addition to her basic salary. The employee alerted the management which then launched an investigation and called the police a month later. 

The 53-year-old told the court that the money she had misappropriated was spent on her child’s education and her parents’ medical bills. She pleaded guilty on June 3 this year to two charges of sham reimbursement and one of criminal breach of trust for cashing two cheques. She had not compensated her employer because she lacked the financial means to do so. 

The Singapore Airlines (SIA) Flight SQ321 that was rocked by severe turbulence on May 21 climbed and descended rapidly twice in 62 seconds, stunning the passengers with one dying of heart attack, as the aircraft flew over the Irrawaddy Delta region of Myanmar, it emerged on May 25.

One passenger — 73-year-old Briton Geoffrey Kitchen — died, and dozens were injured in the incident. It is the first SIA aviation accident involving a fatality since the SQ006 crash in Taiwan in October 2000.

Also read: What is aircraft turbulence and how common is it? | Explainer

As the flight, which was heading to Singapore from London, experienced sudden severe turbulence over the Irrawaddy Basin during the breakfast service, the pilot declared a medical emergency and diverted the plane carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew members to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, where the plane made an emergency landing at 3.45 pm (4.45 pm Singapore time).

Granular flight data from flight tracking website Flightradar24 shows that the Boeing 777-300ER climbed and descended rapidly twice in 62 seconds, starting from 3:49 pm Singapore time, as the plane was nearing the end of a non-stop flight from London to Singapore, The Straits Times newspaper reported.

During this time, the plane climbed from its cruise altitude of 37,000 feet to 37,400 feet and then dropped to 36,975 feet before settling back onto its cruise altitude.

This indicates that it was the rapid transition between the climb and descent caused by the turbulence — and not the actual change in altitude itself, which was relatively minor — that caused pandemonium in the cabin.

The Flightradar24 data — derived from a global network of ground-based receivers, satellites and radars that receive flight data from aircraft transponders — contradicts some earlier reports, which pinpointed the aircraft descending from 37,000 feet to 31,000 feet between 4.06 pm and 4.10 pm as the cause of the injuries.

This latter transition appears to be the pilots carrying out a controlled descent, most likely to assess the situation before diverting to Bangkok, according to the broadsheet report citing a commercial pilot who has flown both civil and military multi-engine passenger aircraft for more than 20 years.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the pilot said the rapid climb would have introduced positive G-forces onto passengers, causing sitting passengers to feel like they have been pinned down in their seats.

The subsequent rapid descent would have resulted in negative G-forces, which would have sent unrestrained passengers and other loose items hurtling upwards onto the ceiling of the cabin, he added.

The embattled plane went through another cycle of rapid climb and descent, causing more damage and injuries, with some passengers and objects hitting the roof panels and overhead lockers before being flung back down.

This is reflected in the accounts of passengers on board SQ321 who reported being thrown onto the cabin roof, with Australian passenger Teandra Tukhunen recounting that she was abruptly woken up when she was thrown to the roof and then to the floor.

The G-force data would have been captured by the quick access recorder fitted onboard the aircraft. This is a flight data recorder designed to provide quick and easy access to raw flight data through means such as USB or mobile phone networks.

The Flightradar24 data showed that the Boeing 777 first attained a climb rate of 1,664 feet per minute (fpm) — or 507m per minute, double the height of 52-storey Capital Tower — before descending at 1,536fpm six seconds later. It rapidly returned to a climb rate of 900fpm a mere three seconds later, and then descended at 1,536 fpm after another 10 seconds.

Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said on Friday that investigators from Singapore’s Transport Safety Investigation Bureau are going through data from the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.

The United States National Transportation Safety Board’s data from 2009 to 2018 showed that passengers injured in turbulence-related accidents were most often using, waiting for or walking to or from the toilet. The second-most common group was passengers who were seated but not belted up.

Thai hospital says 43 people still under treatment

Forty three people who were on board the Singapore Airlines flight remain hospitalised in Bangkok four days after the emergency, a hospital in the Thai capital said on Saturday.

The 43 patients are in three different hospitals in Bangkok, Samitivej Srinakarin hospital said in a statement.

At Samitivej Srinakarin hospital, where 34 of the patients are, seven are in intensive care — three Australians, two Malaysians, one British and one New Zealander, the statement said.

The other 27 patients from the flight at the hospital include eight British, six Australian, five Malaysian, and two Philippine citizens, the statement said.

Two people were discharged from Samitivej Srinakarin, while two from Samitivej Sukhumvit hospital were transferred to Samitivej Srinakarin to join hospitalised relatives, the statement said.

On Thursday, the Samitivej Srinakarin hospital director told reporters 22 patients had spinal cord injuries and six had brain and skull injuries, but none were life-threatening.

A 63-year-old man in Singapore is under investigation for allegedly confining his 15-year-old daughter to a tiny market stall for nearly a year. According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the man, surnamed Tan, had been selling vegetables at a market on Circuit Road for a decade. He allegedly made his teen daughter live in one of the three stalls he rented at the wet market for 11 months. The 15-year-old was discovered when a neighbouring stall owner smelled excrement coming from Mr Tan’s stall and reported it to Singapore’s National Environment Agency. 

The staff from the agency discovered the girl in April, SCMP reported. The 15-year-old had been living in the six-square-metre space. Crammed into the small area was a desk, fridge, fan and a makeshift dirty bed on the floor. 

Neighbours said that the father-daughter duo, originally from Malaysia, had been living in the stall virtually day and night. They had never seen the girl go to school. The neighbours said that the 15-year-old did not leave the stall, even to wash or go to the toilet, and the gate was shut during the day as well as at night. 

Also Read | Vietnam Teacher Sits On 5-Year-Old Boy, Hits Face And Forces Him To Eat Oranges

Mr Tan was protective of his daughter and never let her talk to other stall owners, they said. He also rejected offers to help. “He did not beat or abuse her, but treated her like a pet,” a neighbour said, per SCMP. The neighbours also said that the duo used to have a home, but was not known why they moved to the stall. 

Singapore’s National Environment Agency reported the case to the Ministry of Social and Family Development, following which the girl was sent to hospital for a check-up. Neighbours said they spotted Mr Tan a few times after his daughter was hospitalised. He reportedly told them he would be taking her back to Malaysia. 

The police are investigating the father for alleged child abuse. The probe is yet to reach a conclusion. 

Notably, under Singapore’s Children and Young Persons Act, ill-treatment of a child aged 16 or younger can result in a fine of up to USD 5,900 and a maximum jail term of eight years.
 

Singapore Airlines has been ordered to pay more than 2,040 pounds (INR 213,585) to an Indian couple who said their business-class seats malfunctioned, New York Post reported. Ravi Gupta, a police chief from Telangana, was flying with his wife on a flight from Hyderabad to Australia, which transited through Singapore. They paid 66,750 rupees (about $800) for each business-class seat. Notably, the incident happened last year in May. 

The couple complained that their seats’ automatic recline feature didn’t work. Instead, the seats could only be manually reclined, leaving them frustrated during their five-hour trip. When they complained, they were offered 10,000 frequent flyer miles or loyalty points each. However, they declined the offer and sued Singapore Airlines.

In court documents, the Guptas accused Singapore Airlines of making them feel like lowly ”economy-class passengers” despite them paying for spacious business-class accommodation. They also said they were forced to stay awake throughout the journey as a result. 

Last week, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Telangana, ruled in the couple’s favour and ordered Singapore Airlines to pay them $2,400 ”for causing mental agony and physical suffering.”

In a statement to The Independent, Singapore Airlines did confirm the ”faulty” automatic recline ability in their seats. 

“SIA can confirm that while the automatic recline function on Mr and Mrs Gupta’s seats was faulty, the manual recline function was working on their flight from Hyderabad to Singapore. There were no issues on their connecting flight from Singapore to Perth,” a spokesperson told The Independent. 

”The flight duration from Hyderabad to Singapore is typically around four hours. As it was a full flight, SIA staff, unfortunately, could not reseat the customers elsewhere in the Business Class cabin. Our crew proactively checked in on these customers regularly and offered to manually recline the seat when needed. We apologise to Mr and Mrs Gupta for the inconvenience caused by this mechanical issue,” the statement added. 

Boxes of Everest fish curry masala are stacked on the shelf of a shop at a market in Srinagar
| Photo Credit: Reuters

India, the world’s largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices, has sought details from food safety regulators of Singapore and Hong Kong, which has banned certain spices of Indian brands MDH and Everest due to quality concerns.

The commerce ministry has also directed Indian embassies in both Singapore and Hong Kong to send a detailed report on the matter.

The ministry has also sought details from the Indian firms — MDH and Everest, whose products have been banned for allegedly containing pesticide ‘ethylene oxide’ beyond permissible limits.

“Details have been sought from the companies. Root cause of the rejection and corrective actions will be determined along with the exporters concerned,” a commerce ministry official said.

Technical details, analytical reports and the details of the exporters whose consignments have been rejected have been sought from Embassies at Singapore and Hong Kong, the official said.

Details have also been sought from Singapore Food Agency and Centre for Food Safety, and Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, Hong Kong, the official added.

The ministry official mentioned that an industry consultation is also scheduled to discuss the issue of mandatory testing of ethylene oxide in spice shipments to Singapore and Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, the Spices Board of India is looking into the ban imposed by Hong Kong and Singapore on the sale of four spice-mix products of Indian brands MDH and Everest.

The Food safety regulator of Hong Kong has asked consumers not to buy these products and traders not to sell, the Singapore Food Agency has directed a recall of the products.

In 2022-23 fiscal, the country exported spices worth nearly ₹32,000 crore. Chilli, cumin, spice oil and oleoresins, turmeric, curry powder and cardamom are major spices exported.

Singapore:

Singapore’s Indian-origin Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and several members of Parliament have received extortion letters containing fake photos of themselves in obscene situations.

Balakrishnan said in a Facebook post that several other MPs and himself received letters containing a “fake distasteful image accompanied by a threat”.

“This conduct is deplorable and totally contrary to the values and good practices that we are trying to inculcate in our society. We have filed police reports and will take appropriate legal action,” he said.

The police said late Friday night that the letters, which were sent by post to the victims’ workplaces, contained pictures of the victims’ faces superimposed onto obscene photographs of a man and a woman purportedly in an “intimate and compromising position”.

There have been over 70 police reports since March about such extortion letters, according to a Channel News Asia report on Saturday.

The letters warned of “threatening consequences” unless they contacted the email address provided.

If the victims contacted the email address, they would be asked to transfer money to prevent “compromising photographs and videos” of themselves from being leaked and exposed on social media, the police said.

Balakrishnan said: “In this age of deep fakes and scams, we must take a strong collective stand against such conduct.” “Inside was a distasteful photo where my face was digitally manipulated onto one of the figures, accompanied by an extortion demand,” he wrote on Facebook on Saturday.

He said that while it is not uncommon for public figures to face extortion scams, the rise of “deepfakes” makes it “harder to discern reality from fiction”.

“With readily available tools, anyone can create deepfake content within minutes,” he added.

“This can pose a significant threat to our social fabric. Unchecked, this can affect our public standing and those we love. We must unite as a community to combat these fraudulent acts,” he wrote.

The police advised members of the public to ignore any instructions to initiate contact or make transfers if they received such letters.

They are also asked to report the matter to the police immediately and put the letter in a separate storage bag to hand over to the police.

Investigations are ongoing, according to the Channel report. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)